Pharrell
Photo by Vickey Ford (Sneakshot) for Okayplayer
Photo by Vickey Ford (Sneakshot) for Okayplayer
The Gaye Estate is seeking an additional $3.5 million in damages and attorney fees.
Back like it never left, the Marvin Gaye Estate's infamous "Blurred Lines" case has been, at least in some part, revived.
According to Variety, Gaye's Estate is claiming Pharrell -- who previously paid north of $5 million in damages with fellow defendant Robin Thicke for infringing on Gaye's "Got To Give It Up" -- committed perjury in the case's initial run. They cite the producer's recent interview with Rick Rubin for GQ as a moment in which Pharrell outed himself as doing precisely what he claimed to not have done in court.
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In the interview, Pharrell cops to "reverse engineering" songs from other records, which goes directly against his statements in court. "I did not go in the studio with the intention of making anything feel like, or to sound like, Marvin Gaye," Williams told the court in 2015.
The Gaye Estate's attorney, Richard Busch, is claiming Williams' interview "now flies in the face of those previous sworn denials," in a motion, charging the producer with perjury and fraud. He is seeking an additional $3.5 million in attorney's fees, as well as other damages. Busch's rekindling of the case arrives on the heels of a March 2019 decision that affirmed the outcome of the previous case, but cleared both T.I. and Interscope from the case's crosshairs.
