Mariah Carey was slapped with a lawsuit Friday over her ubiquitous holiday hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
Songwriter Andy Stone is suing the pop superstar and co-writer Walter Afanasieff for “copyright infringement, unjust enrichment and misappropriation” and seeking at least $20 million U.S. in damages.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana, Stone – who goes by the name Vince Vance – wrote and recorded a song titled “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in Nashville in 1989. It was released in 1993, a year before Carey’s song.
Stone claims he trademarked the phrase "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and alleges Carey and Afanasieff “knowingly, willfully and intentionally engaged in a campaign to infringe [Stone’s] copyright in the work … to the commercial gain, personal profit and unjust enrichment of the defendants and the irreparable injury and financial loss.”
Reps for Carey have not commented on the lawsuit.