Mariah Carey Wins Major Legal Battle Over Her Classic Christmas Anthem; Here's All You Need to Know

Mariah Carey wins in copyright case over her most famous holiday song. Read on to know the details.

Written by Ipshita Chakraborty , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 22, 2025 | 04:20 PM GMT | 5.3K

CC: Getty Images

Mariah Carey won a lawsuit regarding all allegations of copyright infringement with regard to her iconic holiday song, All I Want For Christmas Is You. In 2023, the song was included as part of the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

On a landmark day last Wednesday, judges marked the end of a legal battle against songwriter Adam Stone, who claimed that the 1994 release by Carey copied his 1989 song under the same name under his stage name Vince Vance and the Valiants.

According to the BBC, Stone claimed that Carey "exploited his popularity and style" as his song came out five years prior to Carey's best-selling Christmas anthem.

Stone sought at least 20 million USD worth of damages, claiming that Carey's actions had taken "his popularity and style" for commercial exploitation. However, Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani dismissed the case based on failure to prove similarity in the elements found in the songs.

The judge stated that both shared common "Christmas song clichés," but held that this fact did not support a finding of copyright infringement. The court further imposed sanctions against Stone and his lawyers for conducting "frivolous" arguments. The court then ordered that they pay for Carey's legal expenses as well.

Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You has taken on a life of modern cultural phenomenon since it was initially released, earning its writers around 8.5 million USD a year, as per Deadline. It has spent 140 weeks on the UK's top 100 music chart and has made nearly 100 million USD in revenues.

In her memoir published in 2020, Carey wrote that she composed much of the song on a cheap little Casio keyboard, inspired by the movie It's a Wonderful Life. She finished it in the studio with co-writer Walter Afanasieff. Now, it stands even more firmly as one of the most-loved songs of Christmas in all time.