SCOTUS Denies Genius Cert Petition in Breach-of-Contract Claim vs. Google

The U.S. Supreme Court denied the cert petition of ML Genius to review the 2nd Circuit U.S. Appeals Court’s March 31 dismissal of its breach-of-contract claim against Google, said an entry Monday in docket 22-121. The case involved Genius, an online platform for transcribing and annotating song lyrics, and its requirement that visitors agree to its contractual terms as a condition for using its services. Those terms include the promise not to reproduce the contents of Genius’ platform. Genius alleged Google contractually bound itself to those terms but in blatant breach of that contract “stole Genius’s labors for its own competing commercial purposes.” SCOTUS invited Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar in December to file a brief expressing the views of the U.S., and Prelogar told the court May 23 that further review wasn’t “warranted” because the Copyright Act preempts the Genius breach-of-contract claim (see 2305240008).