Case study on songs ‘The Champion’ v. ‘Invincible’

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In January 2018, Carrie Underwood released a song titled 'The Champion'  ft. Ludacris for opening theme of Super Bowl. Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League. 

Lyrics of the chorus of the song was –

“I am invincible, unbreakable, Unstoppable, unshakeable

They knock me down, I get up again, I am the champion”

A songwriter Kirsten Arian in year 2017 released a song titled ‘Invincible’. The song was anthem for character batgirl in ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’. Lyrics of the chorus of the song was –

"Cause I'm invincible, unbreakable, unstoppable

Nothing's gonna shake me”

Kirsten Arian contended that Carrie Underwood's use of chorus lyrics, in that specific order is music infringed of her song ‘Invincible’.

So the question arise that whether the claim of infringement of music by Kirsten Arian is reasonable or not? Did Carrie Underwood infringe on Kirsten Arian's copyright?

The sturdiest points of similarity in both songs use the same five words in a row that is – ‘I am invincible, unbreakable, unstoppable’ at the beginning of chorus. However in Carrie Underwood’s song, the sixth word of the chorus is unshakeable and in Kirsten Arian’s song, the fifth word is nothing’s gonna shake me which is identical in meaning to unshakeable.

Work without enough originality to merit copyright protection such as titles, short phrases, common words that everyone use or slogans etc. cannot be copyrighted. Also, for infringement of music there should be significant points of similarity - melodic, harmonic, lyric or structural.

The words, ‘invincible, unbreakable, unstoppable’, that are in common between the choruses of both the songs are not original and subject to copyright protection. In fact, the words ‘unbreakable, unstoppable, invincible’ have accrued in many songs some of the examples are –

  1.  Bon Jovi’ song titled ‘Unbreakable’  released in 2005. The Lyrics of the chorus of the song was –I'm unbreakable, unstoppable, I'm invincible, C'mon bring it to me, cause I'm always gonna be unbreakable
  2. Cassadee Pope’s song titled ‘ I Am Invincible’ released in 2015. The  Lyrics of the chorus of the song was – I am invincible, I am unbreakable, I am a diamond cut to last, I am unstoppable, I am a hero

So, the similarities of the lyrics are actually not a point of contention for this case. Although both songs in dispute use the same five words in a row, these are relatively common groupings of words that can be found in numerous other songs. The words ‘invincible, unbreakable, unstoppable’, that are in common between the choruses of the song ‘The Champion’ and ‘Invincible’ are not original and subject to copyright protection. 

In my opinion, song ‘The Champion’ is not substantially similar to song ‘Invincible’ and hence there is no music infringement in this case because there are no copyright significant points of similarity - melodic, harmonic, lyric or structural between both the songs and the only elements found similar not subject to copyright protection.


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