getty (2) Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay
Companies have filed suit against Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay over a copyright infringement.
On Thursday, International Manufacturing Concepts, Melomega music and Sound Gems sued the pop singer, and the country music duo among others over their song “10,000 Hours,” according to documents obtained by PEOPLE.
The suit alleges that Bieber, 28, and the duo (Dan Smyers, 34, and Shay Mooney, 30) “stole the core portion” which includes the chorus, verse and hook from the 1973 song “The First Time Baby Is A Holiday,” originally written by Palmer Rakes and Frank Fioravanti.
The suit points out that the song was not released until 2014, about five years before “10,000 Hours” dropped, and alleges there are “unmistakable similarities.”
Reps for Bieber and Dan + Shay did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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The companies, who say they own the song, are seeking credit on the track, along with money in damages, statutory damages, attorney fees — and an injunction preventing further distribution of the song.
Bieber and the “Tequila” singers released the song in October 2019 — just four days after Bieber wed wife Hailey Baldwin for the second time during a religious ceremony in South Carolina, which was attended by many famous friends, including both Smyers and Mooney, as well as Scooter Braun, who manages all three artists.
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In 2021, the stars won a Grammy Award for best country duo/group performance for the song. Meanwhile, in 2020, the song earned the singer two AMAs, an iHeartRadio Music Award and a Billboard award.
In the music video for the song, they each brought their wives and serenaded them as each couple pairs off in their own romantic setting. Bieber and Baldwin share a kiss while lounging in a bed of flowers as both are color coordinated in white.
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In 2016, Bieber was sued by an artist who claimed he and DJ Skrillex stole the hook on “Sorry” from one of her songs, according to ABC News. The singer later filed to have her own suit dismissed, TMZ reported at the time.
Meanwhile, in a similar case recently, Ed Sheeran was sued over copyright infringement for his song “Shape of You.” Earlier this month, however, the British singer won the legal battle and opened up to BBC Two’s Newsnight about winning the case, saying “there was no other choice” but to go to court.
“You can get a judgment or you can have a settlement and [when] you know that you’re in the right, then you can’t settle just out of principle. You can’t settle,” he said. “Our royalties were frozen and we were given two options and we chose the option that was integral to us.”
