THE CHIFFONS VS. GEORGE HARRISON (1976) George Harrison was the first of the Beatles to reach No. 1 on the charts with a solo performance, that being his 1970 song My Sweet Lord. An ode to religious piety, the song also drew attention for the resemblance it bore to He’s So Fine by the Chiffons, written by Ronnie Mack and released in 1962. Mack’s publisher, Bright Tunes Music Corporation, filed suit against Harrison in 1971, but the case did not reach trial until 1976. In the intervening years, the Chiffons recorded their own version of My Sweet Lord to draw attention to the parallels ahead of the trial. Harrison himself claimed that he based the song’s melody on the public-domain hymn ‘Oh Happy Day’, but went on to admit the similarity to He’s So Fine in his autobiography. A judge ultimately found in favour of Bright Tunes Music Corporation, finding Harrison guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” in his work and initially ordering him to pay $1,599,987 in compensation, though litigation would continue until 1998. Beyond its significance for being one of the longest legal battles in US history and for its involvement of a former Beatle, the case set a precedent of harsher copyright standards and prompted a wave of infringement lawsuits. It also coined the concept of ‘subconscious plagiarism’, which has since reemerged in copyright cases across the breadth of the industry, including in the aforementioned Ed Sheeran lawsuits. We expect to see it crop up again many times in future litigation as the IP landscape continues to evolve. “Beyond its significance for being one of the longest legal battles in US history and for its involvement of a former Beatle, the case set a precedent of harsher copyright standards and prompted a wave of infringement lawsuits.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz