Brown's team has responded to a new copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Him and Drake over the song "No Guidance."
Plaintiff Braindon Cooper stated in February that the two artists were "both egotistical and without any legal basis whatsoever" for contending that they did not have "plausible access" to his 2016 song "I Love Your Dress," which Cooper says Drake and Breezy plagiarized for the hook to "No Guidance."
"This is not a close call," says Brown's attorney James G. Sammataro in his latest filing. “Posting a song on the Internet — such that the song is 1 out of 82 million songs on Spotify or posted by one of Instagram’s 1 billion users — and a one-time public performance do not constitute widespread dissemination as a matter of law.”
Cooper claimed he sent his song to Mic Tee in March 2019, and that the Canadian A&R "suggested" that they meet "in Toronto." Sammataro rejected that claim as well.
“Plaintiffs’ allegation that Mic Tee suggested that Cooper travel to Toronto, Drake’s ‘original hometown,’ is insufficient to permit an inference of access. By plaintiffs’ own account, Drake has resided in California since 2014. In any event, there is no allegation that Cooper went to Toronto, and it is implausible to assume that every musician in Toronto collaborates and shares music with Drake,” the filing reads.
As part of the new filing, the lawsuit was asked to be dismissed "in its entirety with prejudice."
Drake and Brown had previously requested that the lawsuit be dismissed on the grounds that Cooper's track is "obscure" and that they were unaware of it before writing "No Guidance." This dismissal request has not yet been decided. Drake's "No Guidance" appeared on Chris Brown's Indigo album and reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally, the song was nominated for Best R&B Song at the Grammys.