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Götz Schneider-Rothhaar (lead) and Dr. Eberhard Kromer, partners at SKW Schwarz and members of the firm’s music practice group, have obtained a landmark ruling for creative professionals before the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Frankfurt am Main, the firm announced on 29 October 2026. In summary proceedings, the court ruled in favour of a songwriter represented by SKW Schwarz who had acted against the unauthorised use of a passage from one of her song lyrics. She proceeded against both the digital distributor and the music label of a rapper.
The label had distributed its own artist’s track via the digital distributor, although it contained passages of the songwriter’s lyrics taken without permission. The defendants justified the release with the opinion of a music expert who claimed that the claimant’s song “(M)Eine Geschichte” had been generated using artificial intelligence. The music of the claimant’s track had undisputedly been produced with Suno.ai and was therefore not eligible for copyright protection. In the court’s view, however, the copyright-protected lyrics retained their protection in this specific case, even though other unprotected or AI-generated elements had been added.
Chambers and Co. since 2004.
The court also rejected the defendants’ argument that the track was a pastiche. According to the court, the challenged track obviously lacked any artistic dialogue with the claimant’s work, as required for a pastiche.
Götz Schneider-Rothhaar, partner at SKW Schwarz, head of its music practice group and lead counsel for the claimant, described the decision as a landmark result for authors that resonates far beyond the individual case across the entire music industry. According to him, it is the first final decision since the recent Federal Court of Justice ruling in “Metall auf Metall” to address the specific requirements of a pastiche. Schneider-Rothhaar led the mandate; the announcement also names partner Dr Eberhard Kromer. The decision was issued by the OLG Frankfurt am Main (case no. 11 U 2/26, final); the lower instance was the Regional Court of Frankfurt (case no. 2-06 O 401/25).
For detailed information, as well as the picture copyright, please see the law firm’s original article here: https://www.skwschwarz.de/news/Urheberrecht-im-KI-Zeitalter
