It took a class action plaintiffs lawyer to make sure no one ever gets sued again over “Happy Birthday.”

When another attorney asked him to help challenge Warner Chappell Music Inc.’s long-claimed copyright on the song “Happy Birthday to You,” Mark Rifkin of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz couldn’t resist the opportunity. On Tuesday, he and his team convinced a Los Angeles federal judge of something Rifkin has believed from the outset—that despite 80 years of licensing efforts, Warner Chappell doesn’t own the rights to the song’s lyrics.

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