Robin Thicke files lawsuit to defend his hit ‘Blurred Lines’

TORONTO — Robin Thicke has gone to court to defend his hit song “Blurred Lines.”

Thicke and co-writers Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris Jr. filed a lawsuit Thursday against the family of the late Marvin Gaye and Bridgeport Music Inc. amidst claims their song bears similarities to Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” and Funkadelic’s “Sexy Ways.”

Neither the Gaye family nor Bridgeport (which owns Funkadelic’s music) have taken legal action against Thicke or his co-writers.

The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks “declaratory relief … that confirms plaintiffs’ unfettered right to exploit ‘Blurred Lines’ free of defendants’ claims.”

Frankie Christian Gaye, Marvin Gaye III and Nona Marvisa Gaye are named as defendants.

WATCH: Robin Thicke appears on The Morning Show

According to the lawsuit, “there are no similarities between plaintiffs’ composition and those the claimants allege they own, other than commonplace musical elements. Plaintiffs created a hit and did it without copying anyone else’s composition.”

Thicke and his co-writers state in the lawsuit they have the “utmost respect for and admiration of” Gaye and Funkadelic and are taking legal action “reluctantly.”

The lawsuit rejects the defendants’ claims that “Blurred Lines” sounds and feels like their compositions.

“Being reminiscent of a ‘sound’ is not copyright infringement,” it reads. “The reality is that the songs themselves are starkly different.”