IP Law Daily, PUBLICITY RIGHTS NEWS—D.P.R.: Bunny gone bad? Reggaeton superstar is sued for unauthorized use of voice, (Jan 12, 2026)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

The artist’s producer solicited a voice message from a friend and allegedly used it without her permission.

A Puerto Rican megastar allegedly purloined the voice of a friend of his longtime producer in two of his most well-known songs as well as a wide range of live performances and promotional materials, a new lawsuit contends. The complaint, filed in a Puerto Rican tribunal, accuses the reggaeton star and soon-to-be Super Bowl performer of invading her moral rights and her right to control her image, as well as other violations under Commonwealth law (Rivera v. Rimas Entertainment, LLC, No. SJ2026CV00019 (D.P.R. Jan. 5, 2026)).

.The lawsuit was brought by Tainaly Serrano Rivera, a businesswoman from San Juan. She contends that in 2018, a producer and then-classmate Roberto Rosado—better known as La Paciencia—asked her to do her a favor by recording the line “Mira, puñeta, no me quiten el perreo.” (The line translates imperfectly into English, but the “perreo” is a popular, sexually charged dance associated with reggaeton music; the line might be interpreted as a very NSFW version of “don’t kill the music” or perhaps more loosely, “don’t kill the vibe.”) Serrano Rivera claims that she recorded the line as a WhatsApp voice message and sent it to Rosado as nothing more than a favor to a friend.

But the private performance shortly thereafter went decidedly public, Serrano Rivera contends, when it was used in a track by Benito Martínez Ocasio—the superstar performer better known to reggaeton fans across the planet as Bad Bunny. Later in the same year, she alleges, Bad Bunny published his breakthrough album X 100pre. One of the songs on the album, Solo de Mi, prominently used the line—precisely as recorded by Serrano Rivera—as the final verse of the song. That song, Serrano Rivera alleges, has been viewed more than 389 million times on YouTube and has garnered more than 540 million plays on Spotify.

But that was not the end of it, Serrano Rivera contends. In early 2025, as Bad Bunny was reaching the height of his fame, he used the voice recording again, this time as a lyrical bridge between verses in the song EoO. The album in which the song was used, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, was an historic success, garnering more than 35 million plays on Spotify with 24 hours of its release and more than 150 million plays altogether within its first few days. It also launched Bad Bunny himself into the stratosphere, with the Debí Tirar Más Fotos album topping the charts in the United States and leading to Bad Bunny’s recognition as the Artist of the Year at the Latin Billboard Awards.

The allegedly unauthorized use of the track did not stop with the two albums, Serrano Rivera contends. The line itself, as recorded with Serrano Rivera’s voice, allegedly formed the core of the “perreo” identity that Bad Bunny adopted at the beginning of his career. Indeed, the complaint alleges, the line eventually came to be associated with Bad Bunny himself—so much so that it was used on t-shirts and promotional material for the performer’s concerts. As a result, Serrano Rivera alleges, every time she hears the song in public or at family gatherings, she feels “worried, anguished, intimidated, overwhelmed, and anxious.”

The lawsuit, which also names the label Rimas Entertainment as a defendant, brings several actions under Puerto Rican law, including statutory claims of violation of moral rights, violation of the right to publicity, and unjust enrichment, as well as a common law claim of violation of the right to privacy. The lawsuit, which demands compensatory as well as punitive damages, alleges that the harm is continuous in that Serrano Rivera suffers damage with every new performance of the songs in concerts and online performances.

The Case is No. SJ2026CV00019.

Attorneys: Jose M. Marxuach Fagot (Marxuach LLC) for Tainaly Y. Serrano Rivera.

Companies: Rimas Entertainment, LLC; Rimas Nation LLC

MainStory: TopStory PublicityRights Copyright Trademark GCNNews