Los Angeles, March 2025 — Mariah Carey just got an early Christmas gift from the federal court system: total legal vindication. After years of legal tug-of-war, a judge finally tossed out the $20 million copyright lawsuit that accused Carey of lifting her beloved 1994 megahit All I Want for Christmas Is You from a lesser-known 1989 country tune. The verdict? Case closed. Or in simpler terms: just because you said “Christmas” first doesn’t mean you invented Santa Claus.
The plaintiffs — Andy Stone, who performs as “Vince Vance,” and his co-writer Troy Powers — claimed that Carey’s song copied the title and “feel” of their earlier track. Which is sort of like suing every bakery because you once made a donut and called it “round.” They argued that their song and Carey’s shared not only a title, but a similar theme of someone wanting love for the holidays. In other shocking news, most people want love for the holidays. Especially songwriters looking for a check.
The Legal Angle: It’s Not That Deep, Guys
Presiding Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani brought the legal sledgehammer down with a ruling that wasn’t just a dismissal — it was practically a mic drop. In her decision, she wrote that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate any substantial similarity between the two songs in terms of protected expression. And no, a few sleigh bells and a title don’t count.
“The law does not recognize ownership of generic themes or phrases,” the judge stated, pointing out that both songs were rooted in universally shared holiday sentiment. She went further, calling the plaintiffs’ complaint “legally deficient” and “misleadingly inflated,” and noted that the musical components — melody, harmony, rhythm, structure — were not just different, but “wholly distinct.”
Translation: wanting someone for Christmas isn’t exactly a Nobel-worthy idea.
Judge Almadani didn’t stop there. She accused Stone and Powers of dragging out the litigation with pointless filings and irrelevant accusations. Their conduct, she said, “unnecessarily increased the cost and complexity of the proceedings,” which is legalese for “wasting everyone’s time.” The court ordered them to reimburse part of Carey’s legal fees — which we can assume are higher than your average Christmas bonus.
Expert Opinions: Music Doesn’t Exist in a Vacuum
Musicologists like Dr. Lawrence Ferrara testified that not only did Carey’s song bear no musical resemblance to the country tune, but that the phrase “all I want for Christmas is you” had appeared in dozens of songs before either version came out. If that’s copyright infringement, then we’ve got to retroactively pay royalties to every caveman who ever hummed a melody around a fire.
Ferrara’s research uncovered at least 19 instances of songs predating both Carey’s and Stone’s work that used the same phrase or theme. And here’s the kicker — no one sued those artists. Maybe because in the music business, clichés are currency. Nobody sues you for being unoriginal. They just don’t buy your album.
Legal scholars chimed in, saying the ruling sets (or rather, reinforces) an important precedent: just because two songs touch the same emotional chord doesn’t mean one is a copy of the other. “It’s like trying to copyright heartbreak,” one entertainment attorney quipped. “Or rain.”
The Bigger Picture: Copyright Law Isn’t a Lottery Ticket
This wasn’t the first time Stone filed this lawsuit. He had previously tried to make the case in a Louisiana court in 2022, which he voluntarily dropped. Like a bad holiday fruitcake, it just kept coming back. This latest version landed in California federal court with a higher price tag and, it turns out, the same lack of substance.
Carey’s team, not exactly known for subtlety, blasted the suit as a “cash grab.” And honestly, that’s not wrong. If this suit had succeeded, it would’ve opened the door to every washed-up songwriter suing anyone with a Spotify Top 100 hit. The line of plaintiffs would stretch longer than Santa’s naughty list.
Legal observers are relieved that the judge didn’t entertain the idea of legally owning basic seasonal emotion. “You don’t copyright Christmas joy,” said one IP lawyer. “Otherwise we’d all owe Mariah for humming her chorus while hanging up lights.”
Meanwhile, In the Real World…
Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You has become the de facto national anthem of December. It’s sold over 10 million copies, hits number one every year with the reliability of a Mariah high note, and just passed 2 billion Spotify streams. Even people who claim to hate the song still know every word. That’s power.
And now it’s legally cemented — again — as hers.
Final Thoughts: Lawyering Up for the Holidays
If there’s a takeaway here, it’s this: not every shared idea is theft. Especially not in music, where the emotional toolbox is often the same — love, heartbreak, joy, longing, and, in this case, jingling all the way.
This lawsuit was the legal equivalent of trying to copyright the phrase “Happy Holidays” and sue every Hallmark card in existence. And in the end, the judge (thankfully) didn’t buy it.
So Mariah can rest easy. Her Christmas empire is safe, her royalties intact, and come December, her song will once again blanket shopping malls, radio stations, and annoyed Uber drivers across the country. And as for the plaintiffs? All they got for Christmas was a court order to pay up.