Spanish figure skater, Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté, was almost blocked from using the music to which his ‘Minions’ routine was choreographed for the Winter Olympic Games in Milan due to copyright concerns.
Sabaté was informed less than one week before the Olympics that he did not have copyright clearance to use the music in the games, which consisted of a variety of songs from the ‘Minions’ and ‘Despicable Me’ films. This came as a surprise to the skater as he had used this music throughout the 2025-2026 season with no issues and had followed the correct protocols including submitting the music to the Skating Union’s recommended rights clearance process in August 2025, months prior to the Winter Olympics.
The skater took to Instagram to share that he may not be able to perform his Minion routine, despite following the necessary protocols which led to the trending hashtag, #lettheminionskate. He later thanked the public for their support saying that it was because of them that Universal Studios reconsidered and granted him the rights to use music from the franchise in his routine. It is also reported that negotiations with Pharrell Williams, the singer of ‘Happy’, a song from Despicable Me which was also used in the routine, took place following the agreement with Universal Studios.
This is not the first instance that the music used in figure skating routines has brought about intellectual property issues in recent years. Canadian ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romanian Le Gac were blocked from using music by Prince for their Olympic routine last year, even though, similarly to Sabaté, they had used the music throughout the rest of the season with no issues. The director general of the Ice Skating Union addressed the issue last year at the Boston world championships, stating that the issue is bigger than the ice skating and instead is a structural problem in the music industry which occurs because there is no common rights clearance platform. Further, he stated that he has discussed this issue with ‘one of the big publishing and music companies’ which agree that a better process is needed and that they are actively trying to find a solution to the problem.
If you have any questions on the above, or if you need any advice or support in respect of your own Intellectual Property, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
