February 17, 2023

Copyright © 2023 Portfolio Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Author: Elaine Briseño

A music production company has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in California federal court accusing Major

League Soccer and a host of its professional teams of using, without permission, hundreds of its cataloged mostly

instrumental musical recordings on social media for marketing purposes.

Hollywood, California-based Associated Production Music LLC filed the complaint Thursday, claiming it learned

through a third-party vendor that the defendants were "exploiting the recordings" on social media by synchronizing

them with videos promoting the commercial activities of the league.

"APM thereafter learned that at no point in time did defendants ever obtain APM's license, authorization or consent

to synchronize the recordings with the videos," the suit said.

Thursday's filing included a list of 253 musical works the league included in its marketing videos without obtaining a

license from the company.

APM, according to its complaint, is the leading production company in North America with more than a million tracks

in its copyrighted catalog. Its well-known tracks, according to the suit, include the theme songs for "Monday Night

Football" and "The People's Court" and "Sweet Victory" from the "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode of "Band of

Geeks."

"Without plaintiff's authorization, license or consent, defendants reproduced, distributed and/or publicly performed

the recordings as part of the videos, thereby infringing plaintiff's exclusive rights of copyright to the recordings under

the Copyright Act," the suit claimed.

APM is seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction that would prohibit MLS from further using the recordings,

damages for the infringement up to $150,000 for each violation, and attorney fees and costs.

An attorney for APM said they have no comment at this time.

A representative for MLS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Music Co. Sues MLS For Unlicensed Use Of 253 Recordings

APM is represented by Douglas L. Johnson, Melissa Eubanks and Daniel B. Lifschitz of Johnson & Johnson LLP.

Attorney information for MLS was not immediately available.

The case is Associated Production Music LLC v. Major League Soccer LLC et al., case number 2:23-cv-01173, in

the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division.

--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.