A sour lawsuit between Jay-Z and his Roc-A-Fella Records; and a man claiming he is owed royalties for designing the label’s logo has finally reached a conclusion from the Second Circuit (New York).

Rewind (The Case): In 2012, Dwayne Walker sued Jay-Z, Roc-A-Fella Records, UMG Recordings Inc., and others, claiming that he designed Roc-A-Fella’s unique logo — an iced-out vinyl record overlaid with a stylized ‘R’ and a bottle of champagne — for Jay and Damon Dash in 1995. Walker says he signed a contract for $3,500 on the front-end and a 2% royalty on all sales for merchandise displaying the logo.

Did he receive the $3,500? Yes. The royalty checks? According to Walker: Nope.

So, he sued seeking about $7 million for unpaid royalties.

HALT: About that contract mentioned, earlier…Walker failed to provide a copy of the alleged contract to the court. What he did have, however, were witnesses to support his claims that a contract did exist. But, that just wasn’t enough. Also, not helping Walker’s case was that his lawyer failed to produce a batch of text messages sought by the defendants, after stating that he would.

The Court Says: The suit, as a whole, was eventually thrown out because the plaintiff missed the statute of limitations for his claims. Walker states that he designed the logo in 1995. He didn’t take legal action until 2012. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations in New York for debt collection is 6 years and oral or written contract is also 6 years.

During an oral argument earlier this month, U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker stated Walker’s claims were “suspicious”; and after listening to accounts from both parties, concluded that “this case has a real stench to it.”

Key Takeaways:

  • Get creative with how you structure your fees (you can charge a flat fee but under certain circumstances, you may want to consider a flat fee plus royalty). Whatever you agree to, put it in writing.
  • Store your signed contracts in a safe place, and if there’s an issue seek assistance with it sooner rather than later.
  • It doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with the statute of limitations for contract disputes in your state.
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The case is Walker v. Carter et al., case number 17-2483 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and 1:12-cv-05384 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.