South Korea's Supreme Court upholds no infringement in Baby Shark

South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a damages claim by American composer Jonathan Wright, effectively ending a six-year legal dispute over the Baby Shark song. The court upheld lower-court rulings that Pinkfong, the Seoul-based children’s content producer behind the ubiquitous tune, did not infringe Wright’s copyright. The decision reinforces a long-standing legal principle that traditional folk tunes and their derivative arrangements do not automatically qualify for copyright protection when the changes do not amount to a substantially new work.

Wright, who also goes by Johnny Only, argued that his 2011 version of the tune copied a bass line and rhythm from a track he released four years earlier, asserting ownership over his interpretation of a melody popular at American summer camps for decades. Pinkfong released its version in 2016, and the song—distinguished by its recognizable “doo doo doo doo doo doo” hook—became a global phenomenon after being posted on YouTube in 2015. The case centered on whether the South Korean company’s arrangement represented a sufficiently original creative work or simply a derivative of a public-domain folk tune.