A songwriter who sued Mariah Carey earlier this year over her ubiquitous holiday hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has dropped his lawsuit.
Andy Stone, who goes by the name Vince Vance, claimed in a June filing that Carey and co-writer Walter Afanasieff should pay him at least $20 million U.S. for “copyright infringement, unjust enrichment and misappropriation.”
According to his lawsuit, filed in the US District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana, Stone 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 claimed 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.”
But, on Tuesday, lawyers representing Stone filed to withdraw the claim. They did not indicate if they plan to refile the lawsuit.
According to public records, a number of songs titled “All I Want For Christmas Is You” were published prior to those by Stone and Carey.