Jury to decide Blurred Lines case?

Robin Thicke.AP

A jury should decide a claim by the children of Marvin Gaye that the 2012 hit song Blurred Lines improperly copied elements of their father’s music, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt made the ruling after reviewing conflicting analyses by experts hired by Robin Thicke and Pharrell, and by Gaye’s children to evaluate Blurred Lines and Gaye’s song Got to Give it Up. The judge determined there is a genuine dispute about whether several musical elements, including signature phrases, hooks, bass lines, keyboard chords and vocal melodies, are similar.

The court fight has lasted more than a year. A trial in scheduled for February 10 in Los Angeles. The singers had sought a ruling Thursday by the judge that Blurred Lines did not infringe on copyrights to the Gaye song.

Their attorney, Howard King, wrote in an email that the ruling was not a surprise, and he was confident the entertainers would win at trial.

In his ruling, Kronstadt limited the analysis to be made by a jury to how the compositions appear on sheet music, not how Blurred Lines and Got to Give it Up sound to listeners. “Since the compositions at issue are completely different, we remain confident of prevailing at trial,” King wrote. A representative for Gaye’s children did not have an immediate comment on the ruling.