The lawsuit that alleges Beyonce illegally borrowed concepts for the Lemonade trailer has already been thrown out of court.
This past June, indie filmmaker Matthew Fulks sued the singer, asserting that imagery like “graffiti and persons with heads down,” “parking garage,” and “feet on the street” had been lifted from the short film he released in 2014, Palinoia.
TMZ released a report that the lawsuit has already been dismissed.
In the original lawsuit, Fulks asserted that her camp, including HBO and Sony Music Entertainment, copied nine total elements from his short film. Beyonce's lawyer Tom Ferber then forwarded a legal motion requesting that the court dismiss the lawsuit and that the Lemonade trailer had nothing to do with Palinoia. In the motion to the Southern District Court of New York, Ferber asserted that his client’s production did not violate any copyright laws.
“A straightforward comparison of the parties’ works provides a textbook example of what does not constitute a legally cognizable claim of infringement,” the motion stated. “The SAC describes elements and features of the works in abstractions to broad as to be meaningless -- because, as even a cursory review of the parties’ works makes clear, at the level of copyrightable expression the works are markedly similar.”
Ferber also expressly stated that the two films have nothing in common. Palinioa chronicles a white man suffering from the breakup of a relationship and Lemonade is about an African-American woman who is experiencing anger, suspicion and denial.
The meeting between the parties to discuss the lawsuit was scheduled for Aug. 25 and Fulks did not immediately release a statement in response.
