Photo Credit: Cornell Dupree & Bill Withers by Annulla / CC by 2.0

Bill Withers’ catalog owner Mattie Music Group sues UMG over Olivia Dean’s “I’ve Seen It,” alleging it plagiarizes Withers’ classic hit, “Just the Two of Us.”

Mattie Music Group, the publisher behind R&B legend Bill Withers’ catalog and his label, Bleunig Music, launched a lawsuit against Universal Music Group, Capitol Records, Sony Music Publishing, and Kobalt over the Olivia Dean track “I’ve Seen It,” from her 2025 album The Art of Loving. The filing alleges that the Dean song unlawfully copies Withers’ 1981 hit, “Just the Two of Us.” Notably, Dean herself is not named among the defendants in the lawsuit.

The label argues that Olivia Dean’s “I’ve Seen It” features “obvious and inescapable” similarities to the earlier Withers song. The filing by Mattie Music Group cites the professional opinion of a musicologist who noted “substantial similarities in protectable musical expression,” specifically referring to the original’s distinct melody. This melody, they argue, is protected by copyright.

Mattie Music Group says it notified the defendants on August 17 of the alleged infringement, but the song continued to be distributed, licensed, and “commercially exploited” without any changes to its credits.

“Just the Two of Us” was released in February 1981 and reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It also won the Grammy Award that year for Best R&B Song.

“Because of the Original Work’s extraordinary and sustained commercial dissemination, including its Billboard success, Grammy recognition, decades of radio play, widespread streaming availability, and numerous commercially released cover versions, Olivia Dean, Bastian Bangebæk, and Max Wolfgang had a reasonable opportunity to encounter the Original Work before creating ‘I’ve Seen It,'” the filing reads.

Olivia Dean and her co-writers Bastian Bangebæk and Max Wolfgang were not named as defendants in the lawsuit. The Art of Loving is Dean’s second album; in 2026, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

“Defendants UMG, Kobalt, and Sony, directly, and/or through their various subsidiaries and affiliates, were involved in the use, licensing, and other exploitation of [Dean’s track] for financial gain.”

The lawsuit requests the court to determine and award damages for the alleged infringement.