New copyright lawsuit against Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas”

A new lawsuit against Mariah Carey's “All I Want For Christmas Is You” claims that the 1994 hit infringes the copyright of an even older song.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Louisiana, Vince Vance, whose real name is Andy Stone, is suing Carey, Sony Music Entertainment and the Christmas hit's co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit, obtained by USA TODAY, alleges that Stone, a member of the pop-country group Vince Vance and The Valiants, co-wrote a song with the same title in 1989. Stone's “All I Want For Christmas” was released several years before Carey's hit, but has different lyrics and a different melody.

The songs share a common title and theme: humbly asking your significant other to bring you something for the holidays. According to the United States Copyright Office, song titles alone are not copyrightable “because they do not contain sufficient authorship.”

Stone claims that Carey's song “damaged” his music career and is suing the defendants for at least $20 million.

According to copyright records, Stone owns a copyright certificate for the song, which was acquired in 1988. According to the Copyright Library, there are many other songs with the same title that also have copyright certificates after the late '80s. But Vance says the defendants never asked for permission to use the certificate to promote and distribute their 1994 Billboard hit top seller.

“Defendants knowingly, willingly and intentionally conducted a campaign to infringe Plaintiff’s copyright in the Work,” the lawsuit states.

USA TODAY has reached out to Carey and Afanasieff for comment.

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According to the complaint, Stone's lawyers contacted Carey and her team about the patent infringement in April 2021 and sent a follow-up letter on the matter in December.

“Even after Plaintiff communicated his concerns to Defendants, he was unable to reach an agreement regarding the use of 'All I Want for Christmas is You,'” the lawsuit states.

Stone is demanding compensation for “the profits, earnings and benefits” that Carey and her team made from the hit.

Last December, Carey's song made Billboard chart history when it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the third year in a row, breaking a tie with Chubby Checker's 1960 dance hit “The Twist,” which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960 and again in 1962.

Before the song topped the charts for the first time in 2019, Carey told USA TODAY in November of that year that she “would be thrilled” to achieve that success.

“I wanted it to feel like a classic, but I didn't know it would actually be a classic. I say that with all modesty, because Christmas music is very special to me,” Carey said at the time.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas' subject of copyright lawsuit