Burruss filed a lawsuit against Zolciak citing copyright infringement and is seeking damages and cessation of the sale of the song.
And guess who Burruss hired as legal representation? You guessed it — fellow castmember Phaedra Park.
The lawsuit was filed in Atlanta on March 12, radaronline.com is reporting, and contends that Burruss wrote Tardy for the Part for Zolciak but that Zolciak failed to adequately compensate her. According to the court documents: “Without Plaintiffs’ authorization, license or consent, Plaintiffs’ Sound Recording embodying a performance of Plaintiffs’ Composition was commercially released as a single record… on or around, September 29, 2009 by Defendant TuneCore in agreement with Defendant Zolciak.
“Defendants marketed and sold the Infringing Single in various formats (e.g., compact disc, downloadable audio track, DVD, etc) and through various websites, all without Plaintiffs’ license, consent or authorization.”
Rodney Richard, who co-wrote the hit with Burruss, is also taking a legal swipe at Zolciak’s wig by joining in on the lawsuit.
Burruss wants to know how much Zolciak has made off the single so that Burruss can recoup her deserved portions.
The writer behind TLC’s last No. 1 hit, “Scrub,” also wrote about the situation that had been brewing for some time. On the October 13, 2010 Burruss wrote about the situation in a blog on Bravo’s Web site. “I hardly got anything from Tardy for the Party. That is the truth,” she wrote. “I am not mad about it. I really blame myself because I didn’t handle my business correctly.”
Well, either Burruss either got mad or she is calmly trying to retrieve just compensation for the creation of the song. In the interim, Burruss wants to temporary halt the sales of the song until the matter has reached a legal conclusion. She is also seeking punitive damages, a jury trial and attorney’s fees.
Interestingly enough, both Zolciak and Burress have their own spin-off reality shows upcoming on Bravo.
