A US federal judge has reversed his own earlier ruling and struck down a major part of a copyright lawsuit accusing hundreds of reggaeton songs, including tracks by Bad Bunny, Karol G and Daddy Yankee, of illegally using the genre's signature dembow rhythm. Judge André Birotte Jr. found that reggae duo Steely & Clevie, who brought the case, had failed to show they held valid copyright over the rhythm, having pieced it together from multiple songs rather than identifying it in a single copyrighted work. The decision is a significant win for the defendants and undercuts fears that the case could effectively grant a monopoly over an entire musical genre.

The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by Cleveland "Clevie" Browne and the heirs of Wycliffe "Steely" Johnson, centres on their 1989 song "Fish Market" and targets almost 2,000 songs by more than 150 artists, including Pitbull, Drake, Luis Fonsi and Justin Bieber. A July ruling had sent the case towards trial, but Birotte said he was persuaded to reconsider after Bad Bunny's lawyers argued the plaintiffs had assembled a "Frankenstein copyright" from three separate songs rather than proving the rhythm existed in one. The judge ruled this cannot stand under US copyright law, though narrower claims over direct sampling of Steely & Clevie's original recordings may still proceed.