A “perpetual” lawsuit against Ricky Martin over a song released for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is headed for yet another round in court, nearly 12 years after it was first filed.

In a decision issued Friday (June 12), a federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s ruling that had dismissed the copyright infringement accusations from Luis Adrián Cortés-Ramos, who has long claimed that Martin stole his song and turned it into the star’s 2014 hit “Vida.”

The ruling sets the stage for even more litigation in a case that has already been pending for well more than a decade — an extraordinarily long time even by the standards of slow-moving federal courts.

“Today, we consider another chapter in the perpetual quest of [Cortés] for good ol’ fashioned copyright justice,” writes a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. “This isn’t the first time Cortés has ended up before us in his David-versus-Goliath copyright battle — in fact, it’s his fifth appeal in twelve years across three cases.”

Cortés first sued way back in July 2014 over Martin’s “Vida,” a track off of One Love, One Rhythm – The 2014 FIFA World Cup Official Album, which reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart amid that year’s global soccer tournament.

The song had an unusual backstory: FIFA and Sony Music held a contest where songwriters could submit entries, which would then be chosen and performed by Martin. After Cortés submitted his song, he was not selected as the winner, but he claims that Martin’s eventual track was so similar to his own that it infringed copyrights.

That kind of dispute can often take a few years to resolve, as the two sides exchange evidence and make arguments, and then a judge or jury figures out how to decide the case. Appeals, delays and disruptions can drag cases out further. But the battle over “Vida” has been something else altogether.

The case was first dismissed in 2015 on the grounds that Cortés had signed a waiver when he entered the contest, agreeing to handle any disputes via private arbitration. That ruling was subject to a lengthy appeal, where it was eventually upheld by the First Circuit in 2016. But Cortés then filed another case against Martin personally and, after another long appeal, he eventually won a ruling in 2020 allowing it to move ahead.

After several more trips back and forth to the appeals court and yet another new version of the lawsuit, a judge finally ruled in August 2024 that Martin was entitled to summary judgment — a case-ending decision without the need for a jury trial.

But in a 41-page opinion on Friday, the First Circuit once again rebooted the case. Writing for a panel of three judges, Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson said the trial court had issued the ruling against Cortés prematurely because it had not given him a fair shot at “discovery” — the process in which the two sides exchange evidence.

“It took those sweeping actions without giving Cortés the benefit of a chance to pursue discovery, despite his repeated pleas for such an opportunity,” the judge wrote. “Cortés appeals on that ground … and we agree with him on the discovery issue, so we vacate and remand for more litigation, yet again.”

The ruling will send the case back to the lower court, where Cortés will now get a “full and fair opportunity” to conduct discovery, a lengthy and expensive process in any lawsuit. After that, the judge will again consider granting Martin a final judgment. But of course, either side can appeal that ruling whenever it happens, extending the case further.

Attorneys for both Martin and Cortés did not immediately return requests for comment.

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