‘Meritless’ Migos Infringement Suit Draws Sanctions

Loeb & Loeb LLP is entitled to collect $450,000 in attorney’s fees, costs, and Rule 11 sanctions for having successfully defended hip hop group Migos against an unreasonable copyright infringement claim centered around lyrics in their song “Walk It Talk It,” the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said. Pickett v. Migos Touring, Inc., 2020 BL 70428, S.D.N.Y., No. 18-cv-09775, 2/25/20. Migos Touring Inc. and Capitol Records LLC won dismissal of the suit in November on the grounds that the plaintiff, Leander Pickett, hadn’t registered his own musical composition “Walk It Like I Talk It” with the US Copyright Office before filing his lawsuit. Migos’s use of the lyric “walk it like I talk it” wasn’t infringing conduct in the underlying case, because the turn of phrase has been used regularly in literature, music, and motion pictures, the trial court said in November.