Mariah Carey Did Not Copy ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ From Earlier Hit, Judge Rules

“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the perennial hit song by Mariah Carey that has become a holiday ear worm for the ages, was not stolen from other songwriters, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled this week.

In addition to dismissing the music copyright case, the judge, Mónica Ramírez Almadani, ordered the two songwriters who filed the lawsuit to pay at least part of the lawyers’ fees for Ms. Carey and Walter Afanasieff, her co-writer and a co-defendant.

The lawsuit, which sought $20 million in damages, relied on music experts who claimed “similarities in isolation,” the judge found, but who failed to put those similarities in the context of the entire song. The judge said that the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing substantial similarities.

The plaintiffs — Andy Stone, who uses the stage name Vince Vance, and Troy Powers — wrote the song in 1988, court documents show. Their song, also called “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” was recorded by Vince Vance and the Valiants and released in 1989.

It became a hit, appearing on Billboard’s Hot Country chart in 1994 and returning to the chart multiple times in the 1990s.

Ms. Carey’s song of the same name was released in late 1994 on her Christmas album, “Merry Christmas.”