Marked. - Issue 063
Pharrell challenges Chad Hugo's copyright claims. USA TODAY brings a new OpenAI suit.
Issue No. 063
October 9, 2026
New York
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The IP Briefing · by ESCA Legal
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| Pharrell Williams and Talamasca asked a Los Angeles federal court to dismiss Chad Hugo's copyright claims in the dispute between the longtime Neptunes collaborators. Their October 6 motion argues that Hugo's second amended complaint does not adequately identify the works he claims to co-own or distinguish rights in musical compositions from rights in sound recordings. The filing seeks dismissal of the federal claims and, if they fall, dismissal without prejudice of the remaining state-law claims. |
| § | Hugo alleges that his writing, production and performance contributions entitle him to ownership interests and an accounting of earnings from their musical partnership. His claims include rights associated with The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. | | § | Williams argues that the latest pleading dropped eight previously named works and now identifies EarthGang's U Gotta without specifying the protected expression Hugo contributed or the particular copyright he claims. | | § | The motion also argues that demands for producer credit and a co-owner's accounting do not independently establish a federal copyright claim. Alternatively, the defendants ask for a more definite statement rather than dismissal. | | § | The filing notices a November 6 hearing before Judge Andre Birotte Jr. It is a request for relief, not a decision on Hugo's authorship or entitlement to payment. |
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| § ESCA Takeaway |
| A musical composition and its sound recording carry separate copyrights. The Neptunes dispute now turns on which works Chad Hugo claims to co-own, what he contributed to them, and whether those allegations support federal jurisdiction. The motion seeks dismissal or a more definite statement, not a ruling that Pharrell owns every disputed work. |
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| More IP Stories |
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| § Copyright · Filed |
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| USA TODAY and 13 affiliated publishing entities sued seven OpenAI entities in Manhattan federal court on October 8. The complaint alleges that OpenAI copied their journalism without permission for model training and reproduced protected content in its products. The publishers seek more than $250 million in damages, an injunction and destruction of models and training sets that incorporate their content. |
| § | The 79-page complaint brings direct and vicarious copyright infringement claims and a DMCA claim alleging removal of copyright management information. | | § | The publishers identify reporting from 19 publications, including USA TODAY, the Arizona Republic, the Detroit Free Press and the Palm Beach Post. They allege both unauthorized training copies and infringing outputs. | | § | The requested damages and model-destruction remedy are demands in a newly filed complaint, not relief the court has awarded. The allegations have not been adjudicated. |
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Why it matters
The lawsuit puts training inputs, product outputs and preservation of copyright information into the same dispute. Its requested remedies extend beyond damages to the models and datasets that allegedly incorporate the publishers' work.
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