Robin Thicke counter-sued by Marvin Gaye estate over 'Blurred Lines'

Earlier in the year, we brought you the news that Robin Thicke was preemptively bringing legal action against the Marvin Gaye estate, due to whispers that the family was considering taking Thicke to task over the similarities between Thicke's smash hit "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's "Got To Give It Up."

We speculated at the time that the family would countersue and that day is finally upon us, but the Gaye estate went a few steps farther than expected.

The suit parses through Thicke's catalogue and claims infringement on several songs beyond "Lines" including "Love After War", the title track from his 2011 release.

In addition to a damning GQ interview, the family included the opinion of  musicologist Judith Finell in their suit. Finnell claims that Thicke's "Blurred Lines" resembles Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" in signature phrase, vocal hook, backup vocal hook, and keyboard and bass lines. (which...I mean, it does).

The family is also suing EMI for failing to protect Gaye's copyright. Thicke's lawyer has released a statement, which you can read below:

"Plaintiffs anticipated a baseless counterclaim for copyright infringement when they filed their original complaint for declaratory relief, so no surprise there. What is surprising in their press-release-disguised-as-a-complaint (much of which will eventually be stricken by the court) is their acknowledgment that the Gaye family has no standing to bring a copyright claim. For this, they blame EMI, the administrator and registered copyright owner of the Marvin Gaye songs. Obviously, EMI, which is in the business of collecting substantial sums for actual infringements, regardless of the publishing affiliations of the infringers, consulted their own expert musicologists who gave the same opinion our 3 musicologists gave: The genres of the songs are the same, the notes are different. So whether or not plaintiffs are fans of Marvin Gaye is irrelevant; no infringement occurred here."

(via)