The week in which the Eurovision Song Contest takes place is a good opportunity to discuss copyright infringement in songs, and in Eurovision entries in particular.
Adv. Ron Klagsbald, Head of the Intellectual Property Practice at our firm, ABADI & CO., shares some thoughts on songs, creators, and everything in between.
The name of the song representing Israel, "Michelle," isidentical to the title of the Beatles song "Michelle." However, Noam Bettan,Israel's representative in Eurovision 2026, has no reason to fear the owners of the rights in the Lennon and McCartney song - the title of a song and/or another literary work does not give rise to a cause of action for copyright infringement.
At the same time, copying a "substantial part" of a song (melody and/or lyrics) may give rise to a cause of action for copyrightinfringement. The relevant case law has established that the term"substantial part" (as set forth in the Copyright Act) is interpreted primarily in a qualitative rather than quantitative sense. There is no need forcomplete copying of the work, and it is sufficient that a substantial part ofit has been copied. This part may be small in quantitative terms, so long as it can be regarded as an essential part of the work, the core of the work, or an original part whose contribution to the work is not negligible.
The determination of this question is not based on a mechanical comparison of details, but rather on the court’s overall impression of the works (the original versus the infringing work, that is, the one alleged tohave been copied). Where the copying of a melody is concerned, the rule is that copyright infringement in musical works is not determined by the identity of any minimal number of notes or bars. The determination depends on whether aprotected expression has been copied to an extent that amounts to a substantial part in the legal sense, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Sometimes, the quantitative aspect also indicates copying in the qualitative sense. However,the courts refrain from setting an "arithmetic rule" on this matter and instead examine each case on its own merits.
In the Eurovision competition as well, which is marking the 70th year of its existence this year in Vienna, Austria, claims of copyright infringement have arisen more than once:
In the 2025 competition, it was claimed that the Icelandic song "Róa" "suspiciously resembles" Ofir Cohen's song"Wedding of the Year" (lyrics and music), better known as "OurBrother Is Getting Married." In that same competition, it was claimed that the successful song by Yuval Raphael, composed by Keren Peles - "New Day Will Rise" - bears a strong resemblance to the song "Ne me quittepas" by singer Jacques Brel. Both cases are merely examples, and neither developed into legal proceedings.
In all cases, the authors argued that the similarity was not theresult of copying, but rather a matter of "inspiration." Not many peopleremember that a copying claim was also made against the winning song of the 2018 competition, Netta Barzilai’s “TOY”. This was based on alleged similarities to"Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes. Universal, the rightsholder, sent a warning letter on this matter, and under a settlement agreement,composer Jack White was added to the list of the song's composers and nowreceives a share of the royalties.
Although it may sometimes seem otherwise, Europe is not boring at all!
On that note, all that remains is to wish Noam Bettan great success and douze points (French for "twelve points" in Eurovision), as well as enjoyment for the millions of viewers around the world celebrating 70 years of color and musicality.
