allegations of songwriter Adam Stone, who released a song with the same name in 1989. He accused Carey of exploiting his ‘popularity’ and ‘style’. Mr Stone, who performs under the name Vince Vance, was claiming at least $20million (£16million) in damages. But in her ruling, Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani cited expert testimony saying the two songs simply shared "Christmas song clichés" that were common to several earlier hits.

Mr Stone and his lawyers had not "met their burden of showing that [the songs by] Carey and Vance are substantially similar", she wrote. Judge Almandi also ruled that Mr Stone and his lawyers should face sanctions for filing ‘frivolous’ arguments, that included "vague... and incomprehensible mixtures of factual assertions and conclusions, subjective opinions, and other irrelevant evidence". She ordered Mr Stone and his lawyers to repay the legal bills Carey incurred in defending the case. The case was originally filed in 2022, with Mr Stone claiming Carey's hit was copied from a song he'd recorded under the name Vince Vance and the Valiants.

In court papers, he claimed his track had received ‘extensive airplay’ during the 1993 holiday season - a year before Carey's song was recorded and released. In her 2020 memoir, Carey said she had composed ‘most of the song on a cheap little Casio keyboard’, while playing the movie It's A Wonderful Life for inspiration, before completing it in the studio with her co-writer Walter Afanasieff. But Mr Stone rejected that account.

"[Carey] palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own", he said in court papers. "Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn't believe the story she has spun." The initial complaint was dropped in December 2022, but refiled a month later.  Mr Stone had hoped to share in the song's runaway success. All I Want For Christmas Is You earns about $8.5 million (£6.6 million) every year; and has spent 140 weeks in the UK's top 100. (BBC/ Getty Images)