US pop singer Mariah Carey has defeated a lawsuit claiming she illegally copied elements of her mega hit All I Want for Christmas Is You from a country song of the same name.

US District Judge Monica Almadani in Los Angeles in a ruling said the writers of Vince Vance and the Valiants’ All I Want for Christmas Is You failed to show their song was objectively similar enough to Carey’s to support their copyright infringement case.

Lawyers for the songwriters, lawyers for Carey and spokespeople for her label, Sony Music, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision on Thursday (local time).

Vince Vance and the Valiants’ All I Want for Christmas Is You was released in 1989 and reached the Billboard country charts during holiday seasons in the 1990s.

Carey’s song appeared on her 1994 album Merry Christmas and has become a popular standard, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart every holiday season since 2019. All I Want For Christmas Is You is reported to have earned more than $US60 million ($A95 million) since it was first released.

Andy Stone, who performs as Vince Vance, and co-writer Troy Powers filed the lawsuit in 2023. They said Carey’s song copied their song’s “extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury” and other lyrical and musical elements, requesting at least $US20 million ($A32 million) in damages.

Carey responded last year the songs were “completely different” and argued that any similar elements were common to many Christmas songs, such as “snow, mistletoe, presents under Christmas trees, and wanting a loved one for Christmas.”

Almadani determined that the songs were not similar enough for a jury to find that Carey had committed copyright infringement, citing differences in their melodies, lyrics and other musical elements.

Almadani also ordered the songwriters to pay part of Carey’s lawyers’ fees, finding some of their filings contained a “litany of irrelevant and unsupported factual assertions.”

-AAP