Luna Aura LLC v. 3LAU Entertainment, LLC, et al.
Overview
Filed November 9, 2022 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Summary: In 2017, Luna Aura (real name Angela Anne Flores) co-authored “Walk Away,” a song featured in 3LAU’s (real name Justin Blau) album Ultraviolet. Per the terms of their 2017 agreement, 3LAU was granted rights in the master recording, and Luna Aura was granted a royalty. In February 2021, 3LAU released Ultraviolet as a series of NFTs and generated more than $11 million in initial sales, but Luna Aura allegedly received no royalties from those sales. Aura sued 3LAU for breach of contract, unfair competition, an an accounting.
Status: The defendants filed their answer to the amended complaint on January 27, 2023. A few months later, during discovery, the parties settled.
Bottom Line: Although this lawsuit doesn’t have any IP claims like copyright infringement at issue, it is still an important IP case to watch. Lawsuits regarding how NFT-related sales fit into pre-NFT IP licenses are bound to keep popping up in court since NFTs weren’t on anybody’s radar when these licenses were drafted. (See Miramax v. Tarantino.) Indeed, in responding to the lawsuit, 3LAU’s manager stated “there are no set standards for how to approach an NFT project like this, which involved much more than just the music.”
Docket
Selected filings from the docket, available for free, are below. The full docket can be accessed via Court Listener.
11/9/2022 - Complaint and Exhibit A (contract)
11/23/2022 - Amended Complaint
1/27/2023 - Answer to Amended Complaint
3/20/2023 - Order of Dismissal
5/16/2023 - Stipulation and Order of Dismissal