LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess) – Ariana Grande has settled the “God Is A Woman” video copyright infringement lawsuit brought against her by Las Vegas-based “Metaphorical Realism” artist Vladmir Kush.
Kush, owner of Kush Fine Art in Las Vegas, sued Grande, Universal Music Group, video director Dave Meyers and video producer Nathan Scherrer and his company Freenjoy, Inc. in January over use of an image of a woman in a candle flame that appears in the video, which he alleges is an identical copy of paintings that he produced and copyrighted in 1999 and 2000.
According to the original complaint, the candle in Grande’s video is “strikingly similar” to Kush’s signature artwork titled “The Candle.” It went on to state that the “defendants clearly copied Mr. Kush’s expression of this idea. Specifically, defendants chose to use the same color palette, the same background of a cloudy sky, the same ring effect of the clouds around the flame, the same light beams radiating from the flame, and the same color candle, light fading to dark.”
The two parties announced in July that they had agreed to resolve the suit as a settlement had been reached. Notice of the parties voluntary dismissal was filed with the court on August 16.
At the time of publication, Grande’s video had been viewed more than 242 million times since it was posted July 13, 2018.
