Withers’ Own Publisher Sues Over Olivia Dean’s Album Closer

Mattie Music Group sued Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony, and Kobalt on Oct. 1, 2026, over Olivia Dean’s 2:06 closer “I’ve Seen It.”

The Los Angeles filing says the track copies the melody of Bill Withers’ 1981 hit “Just the Two of Us.” Dean, 27, wrote it with Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang, and none of the three is a defendant. The Art of Loving tour was in the middle of sold-out Australian arena dates as the court issued summonses.

The Caption Names the Labels, Not Olivia Dean

Mattie Music Group, doing business as Bleunig Music, filed the seven-page complaint filed on Oct. 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The case number is 2:26-cv-11383. Judge A. Joel Richlin is assigned. Clair G. Burrill of Thousand Oaks and JD Sanchez of Long Beach signed for the plaintiff.

The complaint calls “Just the Two of Us” the Original Work and, from the middle of the filing on, calls Dean’s song the Infringing Work. It seeks one count of copyright infringement against the companies that put the recording out and licensed the publishing, plus 50 “Doe” defendants it says it will name later.

WHO THE FILING NAMES

Capitol and UMG, the complaint says, distributed the recording. Sony and Kobalt, it says, handled publishing. Headlines that put Dean in the dock skip that split. The people who can be served with an injunction, a profits claim, and a seizure order are the four companies on the caption.

One of Three Withers Publishers Filed Alone

Bleunig is not the only owner on the 1981 composition. Work registrations list three publishers credited on the 1981 song: Bleunig Music, Antisia Music, and BMG Ruby Songs. Antisia and BMG Ruby Songs did not join the case.

Mattie describes itself as “a copyright proprietor” because Withers was under contract with it when he co-wrote the song with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter. A copy of U.S. Copyright Registration PA0000102060, dated April 1, 1981, is attached as Exhibit A.

That is a thinner plaintiff group than the byline on the record. A co-publisher can sue on its own share. It cannot speak for the writers who stayed off the caption, and it cannot speak for the two publishers who stayed out.

I’ve Seen It Is a Two-Minute Album Closer

“I’ve Seen It” is track 12 on The Art of Loving, Dean’s second album, released through Capitol on or about Sept. 26, 2025. It runs 2:06. The hits from the same record are other songs. “Man I Need” went to No. 1 in the United Kingdom the same week the album did, the first British female Official Chart double since Adele in 2021.

In the United States the album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. Dean won the Grammy for Best New Artist in February 2026. Langebæk signed a global deal covering his future works with Sony Music Publishing UK and Second Songs in April 2026, after time at Universal Music Publishing Group. Wolfgang is signed to Kobalt worldwide. The complaint never says which publisher administers which writer’s share of “I’ve Seen It,” and Langebæk’s Sony deal covers songs written after the album.

THE TWO SONGS IN THE COMPLAINT

Access, the complaint argues, is easy to infer. The 1981 record had decades of radio play, streams, and covers, so Dean, Langebæk, and Wolfgang “had a reasonable opportunity to encounter the Original Work.” It also claims the overlap is striking enough on its own, even without that history.

What the Seven-Page Complaint Never Spells Out

Representatives of Mattie, the filing says, listened to “I’ve Seen It” several times in early August 2026 and reached what they called the obvious and inescapable conclusion that it copied the Withers song in large and significant part, including “repeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody.” They then hired Alexander Stewart, Ph.D., for a preliminary comparison and a search for similar older songs. Stewart, the complaint says, found substantial similarities in protectable musical expression.

Independently of the widespread-dissemination evidence, the number, character, and arrangement of the shared musical features are so striking that they support an inference that the similarities did not result from coincidence, independent creation, or reliance on common musical elements.

Mattie Music Group, complaint, U.S. District Court, Central District of California

The complaint never names a pitch, a bar, a key, or a timestamp. Brian McBrearty, a forensic musicologist who is not on the case, wrote that the shared passage starts around 35 seconds into Dean’s song and runs two measures and about 15 consecutive notes, with related harmony even though one song sits in a major key and the other in a minor key. He called the melody virtually identical and predicted the dispute would be resolved quickly. He also heard Beatles-like writing at the top of “I’ve Seen It,” which is a separate observation and not part of the claim.

The likeness is not a buried one. Anyone who plays the two records back to back can hear the stretch the filing is talking about, which is why some listeners treated it as an interpolation that should have been credited. Interpolation is a clearance problem. Uncredited copying is what the complaint alleges. Those are not the same thing, and neither has been tried.

The Plaintiff’s Expert Lost the Sheeran Trial

Stewart is a University of Vermont musicologist. Plaintiffs have hired him before in the small group of experts who testify when pop songs land in federal court. The two best-known trials did not go their way.

STEWART ON THE PLAINTIFF SIDE

• Stairway to Heaven: He testified for the plaintiffs who said Led Zeppelin copied Spirit’s “Taurus.” Led Zeppelin won, and later appeals left that result in place.
• Thinking Out Loud: He testified for the plaintiffs who said Ed Sheeran’s song copied Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” Sheeran won at trial.
• June 2025: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal on the Sheeran composition claim, leaving the lower-court wins for Sheeran, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Publishing in place.

None of that decides this case. It does show the forum Mattie walked into. After Sheeran, a plaintiff still has to prove access and copying of protectable expression, not a shared groove, and a jury can still hear “common musical elements” as a complete defense. Mattie’s own complaint spends a sentence denying coincidence, independent creation, and common elements, because those are the doors the companies will try to walk through.

Withers Built Bleunig to Own His Songs

The plaintiff is not a distant catalog fund. Withers formed Golden Withers Music in 1974 after his first record deal left him without his songs. He founded Bleunig Music in 1978 to widen that publishing, and Bleunig is a co-publisher of “Just the Two of Us.” In 1997 he formed Mattie Music Group as the umbrella. He named the company for his late mother, Mattie Withers, as the place “where the music came from.”

HOW THE CATALOG GOT HERE

1. 1974: Withers founds Golden Withers Music to publish his own work.
2. 1978: He founds Bleunig Music; it becomes a co-publisher of “Just the Two of Us.”
3. February 1981: Grover Washington Jr.’s single with Withers on lead vocal is released. It reaches No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and wins the Grammy for Best R&B Song.
4. April 1, 1981: Copyright registration PA0000102060 is recorded.
5. 1997: Withers forms Mattie Music Group as the umbrella for the publishing companies.
6. 2016: Mattie sues over Kendrick Lamar’s “I Do This,” alleging it used Withers’ “Don’t You Want to Stay?” The parties settle in about six months.
7. March 30, 2020: Withers dies at 81.
8. Oct. 1, 2026: Mattie files the Dean-label complaint in Los Angeles.

Dean’s public sound sits in that lineage. Messy, her 2023 debut, and The Art of Loving both lean on warm soul, jazz harmony, and 1970s R&B pacing. The company Withers built so he would not lose that language is now asking a court to treat a young British writer’s closer as a copy of one of its most famous titles. Homage is the marketing. The filing is the bill.

A Seizure Order Meets a Sold-Out Arena Run

On or about Aug. 17, 2026, Mattie sent written notice to each defendant, identifying the registration, the accused song, and the musical similarities. That was 45 days before the complaint. The companies, the filing says, kept reproducing, distributing, licensing, publicly performing, and commercially exploiting the track. Mattie calls that willful.

The prayer asks for a permanent injunction, the plaintiff’s losses, the defendants’ profits, interest, costs, and attorneys’ fees. It also asks for an order under the Copyright Act authorizing seizure, impounding, or destruction of copies. Before final judgment a copyright owner may elect statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work if a court finds the copying willful, or $750 to $30,000 if it does not. Those caps are the statute, not a demand for a specific sum. The complaint leaves the dollar figure for trial.

UMG, Sony, and Kobalt had not issued a public response when the filing circulated. On Oct. 7 the court issued 21-day summonses to Capitol Records, Kobalt, Sony Music Publishing, and Universal Music Group. Through that docket update, no answer was on file.

Dean’s Art of Loving tour, presented in Australia and New Zealand with every arena date sold out, played Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6. Sydney dates at Afterpay Arena sat on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10. Brisbane Entertainment Centre is booked for Oct. 13, and the run finishes Oct. 17 at Western Springs Bowl in Auckland after a venue upgrade. The closer that is now an exhibit is still on the album those rooms are there to hear.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a filed civil complaint and related public records. It is informational only and is not legal advice, a prediction of how the case will be decided, or a finding that anyone copied anyone else. Readers who need advice about copyright, licensing, or a dispute over a song should consult a qualified intellectual-property attorney licensed in the relevant place. Figures, party names, and case status are those in the complaint, the docket, and the other sources cited, and they can change as the case moves.