Court Rules in Favor of Domestic Company in 'Baby Shark' Copyright Lawsuit... "Not a Plagiarism of Baby Shark"

Pinkfong Baby Shark Musical Poster.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] A domestic company has won a copyright lawsuit over the popular children's song "Sang-eo Gajok" (Baby Shark).

On the 23rd, Judge Lee Jeong-kwon of the Civil Division 208 at the Seoul Central District Court ruled against Jonathan Robert Wright (stage name Johnny Only), an American children's song composer, in his damages claim lawsuit against the domestic company SmartStudy, which created Baby Shark.

Baby Shark is a children's song released in 2015 by the domestic education startup SmartStudy through its early childhood education content Pinkfong. It gained immense popularity, reaching the US Billboard Hot 100 main singles chart due to its highly addictive chorus.

The dance video accompanying the song (Baby Shark Dance) currently holds the record for the most views on YouTube, exceeding 9 billion cumulative views.

Johnny Only claimed that his 2011 children's song "Baby Shark," which was a derivative work that added a unique rhythm to a traditional folk song, was plagiarized by Baby Shark, and filed a lawsuit in a Korean court in March 2019.

On the other hand, SmartStudy argued that Baby Shark was produced by simply rearranging a traditional folk song from the North American region and is unrelated to Johnny Only's work. Since traditional folk songs are considered "author unknown" or "works whose copyright period has expired," copyright infringement cannot be an issue.

In response to Johnny Only's request to specify the differences between the two songs, the court conducted an expert examination to determine copyright infringement and concluded that it could not be considered plagiarism.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.