The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, said that President Donald Trump and his campaign had refused to remove the 55-second video, despite repeated warnings that it was an "unauthorized use" of Grant's famous recording.

The video, which Trump posted to his personal Twitter account Aug. 12, features a high-speed animated train bearing the words "Trump Pence KAG 2020," while a likeness of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden trails behind, operating a slow-moving handcar.

"Electric Avenue," meanwhile, begins playing at the 15-second mark and can be heard throughout the duration of the video, along with "out-of-context excerpts" from the former vice president's speeches and interviews, the suit said. Trump's tweet remains available on Twitter and had been retweeted more than 138,000 time as of Tuesday afternoon.

"Despite plaintiffs having sent defendants a letter the very next day objecting to defendants' infringement and demanding the removal of the infringing video and that defendants refrain from further infringing plaintiffs' copyrights, and despite numerous comments on Mr. Trump's August 12, 2020 tweet linking to articles reporting on the infringement, defendants have continued to willfully and wrongfully infringe plaintiffs' copyrights," Grant's Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt attorneys wrote in the 11-page complaint.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment on the filing.

Grant, a Guyanese-British singer-songwriter and founding member of the pop group The Equals, originally assigned the song's copyrights to his company Greenheart Antigua in 1983, the same year "Electric Avenue" spent five weeks at No. 2 on Billboard Magazine's Top 100 Chart. The recording was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

According to the complaint, Greenheart Antigua's licensing arm, Greenheart UK, briefly licensed the copyrights to Warner Music in 2001 upon the release of Grant's greatest hits album. Greenheart UK became the beneficial owner of the copyrights in 2006, when the five-year agreement with Warner Music expired.

Grant's attorneys said in the lawsuit that it appeared as though Trump and Donald J. Trump for President Inc. had "financially and politically benefited" from the allegedly infringing video, which had been viewed more than 13 million times.

According to the filing, Grant's lawyers sent a letter to Trump and his campaign Aug. 13 demanding that they "cease and desist from any further infringing conduct," and Grant has publicly stated his "dismay" that 'Electric Avenue' was used without his permission."

"Defendants have failed and/or refused to comply with Plaintiffs' demands set forth in the August 13, 2020 letter, have continued to infringe Plaintiffs' copyrights in the composition and the recording, and, upon information and belief, will continue to infringe plaintiffs' copyrights in the composition and the recording unless enjoined by this court," the two-count lawsuit said.

Grant is represented in the suit by Brian Caplan, Robert Clarida and Julie B. Wlodinguer of Reitler Kailas in Manhattan.

The case, captioned Grant v. Trump in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, had not yet been assigned to a judge, as of Tuesday afternoon.

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