Artists Saying ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ Stole Riff Fail to Revive Suit

British band The Spencer Davis Group defeated a copyright lawsuit alleging its hit song “Gimme Some Lovin’” copied a riff from the song “Ain’t That a Lot of Love,” after the Sixth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs hadn’t properly registered their copyrights for the song.

The authors of “Ain’t That a Lot of Love,” the late Willa Dean Parker and Homer Banks, hadn’t provided a copy of the sheet music to the US Copyright Office, failing a necessary step to sue for infringement, the appeals court said in a non-precedential decision.

Parker and Banks’ estate sued The Spencer Davis ...