Olivia Dean's music has become the subject of a lawsuit alleging that her 2025 song "I've Seen It" copies the melody of Bill Withers' classic hit "Just the Two of Us."

Mattie Music Group, the publisher of Withers' catalog, filed the lawsuit against Dean's label on Friday. The suit asserts that Dean's song and Withers' 1981 Grammy-winning track share "obvious and inescapable similarities."

"The number, character and arrangement of the shared musical features are so striking that they support an inference that the similarities did not result from coincidence, independent creation or reliance on common musical elements," the lawsuit states.

The core of the allegation centers on the claim that "I've Seen It" repeatedly replicates the "distinctively protectable melody" of "Just the Two of Us."

After discovering Dean's song in August 2026, Mattie Music Group commissioned a preliminary analysis from musicologist Alexander Stewart, who reportedly found substantial similarities in protectable musical expression. The lawsuit emphasizes that Withers' original song achieved significant popularity, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving decades of airplay and streams, thus providing Dean and her co-writers, Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang, ample opportunity to encounter it.

According to the suit, Mattie Music Group notified the companies involved of the alleged infringement on August 17, 2026, but claims the commercial exploitation of the song continued afterward.

The federal lawsuit targets Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony Publishing, and Kobalt Music Publishing, seeking damages, profits, and an injunction to prevent further alleged infringement. Dean herself is not personally named as a defendant.

Bill Withers, who passed away in 2020, achieved his breakthrough in 1971 with "Ain't No Sunshine." His notable catalog also includes songs such as "Lean on Me," "Use Me," "Lovely Day," and "Grandma's Hands."

Dean, a 27-year-old British singer-songwriter, has emerged as a significant artist in the UK, blending soul, pop, and R&B influences. She released her debut album, "Messy," in 2023, followed by "The Art of Loving," which featured hits like "Nice to Each Other," "So Easy (To Fall in Love)," and "Man I Need."