'Fresh Prince' Star Alfonso Ribeiro Suffers Major Loss In 'Carlton Dance' Copyright Battle
Alfonso Ribeiro has officially lost his bid to copyright the "Carlton Dance" in his legal battle against the creators of the widely popular video games Fortnite and NBA 2K.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Copyright Office denied the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star's request to solely make the dance his, ultimately concluding that he does not own it.
Expounding more on the decision in a 29-page motion, registration specialist Sasika Florence explained that the viral dance is a "combination" of moves in a "simple routine that is not registerable as a choreographic work."
The legal docs went on to further highlight several more reasons as to why Ribeiro's claim held no weight, in their eyes.
"This lawsuit suffers from a host of issues ranging from a lack of plausible ownership, to a lack of substantial similarity, to preemption by the Copyright Act," the motion to dismiss reads.
In one final determining factor for the denial, the motion states that the actor "admitted to creating the alleged dance" just for the sitcom, but failed to register it until recently after seeing the dance recreated in the video game. It was concluded in the documents that he did so "presumably because he knows that he does not own the copyright."
An official hearing on the motion is set for March 18.