Dr. King Attorney Retracts Infringement Suit Against Motown Records
DETROIT — Involvement of Motown Record Corporation in a multi-defendant infringement suit lodged last week by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was an error, and the company’s name has now been dropped from the suit, according to Motown spokesmen.
According to officials of Motown, King and the record company’s president, Berry Gordy Jr., are close friends and that when King’s attorney, Clarence Jones, filed the suit, he was not aware of this and of previous agreements made between the two men, and added the name of Motown to those of the other defendants, Mr. Maestro, Inc., and 20th Century-Fox Records.
The action stems from the alleged unauthorized use on records of King’s recitation, “I Have a Dream,” used at various integration rallies, on which he says he obtained a copyright.
The Motown use of the recitation appeared on an LP of a mass meeting and rally earlier this year in Detroit. Motown says it will soon issue another LP, titled “The Great March On Washington”. END
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Information, credit and news source: Billboard, October 19, 1963
A MCRFB Note: For a more in-depth publication relating as close to this October 1963 Billboard story, read this TIME article dated February 20, 2020, HERE
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The Motown Records ad featured below (published in Billboard 10/12/1963) was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
