On Aug. 24, 2022 the Central District of California granted defendant’s 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss in Hanagami v. Epic Games, 2022 WL 4007874 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 24, 2022), in which plaintiff Kyle Hanagami claimed that defendant Epic Games infringed his registered copyright in a choreographic work titled “How Long Choreography.”
On Nov. 11, 2017, plaintiff, a Los Angeles-based choreographer and dance teacher, uploaded to YouTube a video of himself and others dancing to the song “How Long” by Charlie Puth. The five-minute video, which portrays five different groups of dancers performing the same series of movements, has received more than 36.5 million views as of this writing. On Feb. 20, 2021, plaintiff registered his copyright claim in the choreographic work fixed in the video with the U.S. Copyright Office.
