Dionne Warwick is being sued by a rights firm that claims she has backed out of a deal that entitles them to “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars” for work recovering her royalties, court records show. The company, Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation, cites its negotiation of terms and payment for the “Walk on By” sample in Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” as a key payday for which it is owed an ongoing cut of royalties. Warwick’s team did not immediately respond to Pitchfork’s request for comment.
In the lawsuit, filed in New York on Monday (December 15), Artists Rights claims that, since its 2002 deal with Warwick, the company has waived upfront fees in exchange for half of any royalties and settlements it negotiates and collects on her behalf, in perpetuity. That work includes managing the royalty agreement that resulted from Warwick’s 2002 lawsuit against Atlantic—over her ownership of her Scepter Masters and classic single “Then Came You”—as well as a deal involving royalties owed to Warwick by Sony, which were being funneled to the state of California to pay off Warwick’s tax bill. Artist Rights claims it has already agreed to reduce or waive its fees for various work done for Warwick over the years, and that the sum of its efforts is more than $2.5 million in revenue—including that recent boon from “Paint the Town Red.”
This September, however, Warwick allegedly sought to end the deal and to directly receive royalties from Sony, Rhino, and the British copyright collective PPL. Artists Rights argues that this violates their contract. The company says it is entitled to ongoing income for deals it negotiated—a structure designed to offset the risk it took on by waiving upfront fees. This type of agreement is not unheard of, according to Billboard, mirroring the no-win-no-fee model employed by some legal firms. Artists Rights is seeking the reinstatement of its cut from Warwick’s royalty deals as well as compensation and interest for missed payments since her attempted termination of the contract.
