Led Zeppelin's lawyer demands lawsuit dismissal on jurisdiction grounds

Led Zeppelin's new entertainment lawyer has asked a Pennsylvania judge to dismiss a plagiarism lawsuit over the British band's Stairway To Heaven hit on the grounds of a lack of jurisdiction.

The rockers are fighting a copyright infringement claim filed in Pennsylvania against the group in May (14) by Francis Malofiy, a lawyer representing late Spirit guitarist Randy California.

Malofiy alleges the opening notes of Stairway To Heaven are too similar to California's work on his 1968 song Taurus and is demanding credit for at least inspiring Led Zeppelin's 1971 release.

Guitarist Jimmy Page previously dismissed the lawsuit as "ridiculous" and now top attorney Helene Freeman is seeking to have the case thrown out of court.

In a motion to dismiss, Freeman writes, "The individual defendants are British citizens residing in England, own no property in Pennsylvania and have no contacts with Pennsylvania, let alone ties sufficient to render them essentially at home here.

"Under established case law, no good faith basis exists to argue the Court has general jurisdiction over them."

Led Zeppelin hired Freeman, who litigated a series of victories for Justin Timberlake's former boy band 'N SYNC, earlier this month (Sep14), to help them win the case.

Randy California, real name Randy Craig Wolfe, was born in Los Angeles.