Bob Dylan successfully scored the win against Jacques Levy's widow, who demanded a cut of his $300 million publishing deal.
Billboard first revealed that Dylan won the ruling on Tuesday. According to the news outlet, a New York appeals court rejected the lawsuit filed by the widow of the singer's late collaborator, Jacques Levy.
According to Claudia Levy, she deserves the $7.25 million cut of the musician's $300 million deal with Universal Music Publishing Group. A trial judge already ruled in August that Levy sold his rights years ago, but Claudia still pushed through with the case and even filed an appeal.
But the New York's Appellate Division had the same ruling and said that it was not a near victory for Levy's widow at all.
"The parties' agreement is unambiguous and does not entitle plaintiffs to proceeds from the sale of the copyrights of the compositions cowritten with Dylan," the appeals court said. "Nothing submitted by plaintiffs concerning music industry custom and practice supports a reading otherwise, or even suggests an ambiguity in the relevant contractual language."
Dylan's lawyer, Orin Snyder, called the development the "nail in the coffin" of the "opportunistic lawsuit." The camp expressed their gratitude after the court rejected the sad attempt to gain from Dylan's recent catalog sale.
What the Lawsuit Is All About
Claudia Levy first filed the case in January 2021, a few months after Bob Dylan sold his catalog of more than 600 songs to the Universal Music Publishing Group.
At that time, Claudia claimed that she should have a cut from it due to the 1975 agreement Dylan made with her late husband for his contributions to "Desire." The initial ruling revealed that the 1975 deal was actually a work-for-hire agreement.
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It means that all ownership rights still belong to Dylan, and Levy was only entitled to the royalty payments and not on the rights sale.
"For the reasons explained here, the Court determines that the plain meaning of the 1975 Agreement is that the Dylan Defendants owned all copyrights to the Compositions," Judge Barry Ostrager said.
Even Levy's son, Julien Levy, once served a complaint after the patriarch was not acknowledged in the 2019 documentary "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story" by Martin Scorsese.
Levy worked with Dylan and co-wrote seven of "Desire" nine tracks, including "Hurricane," "Isis," and "Mozambique." He died due to cancer in 2004.
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