“Defamation is the ‘making of a false statement which tends to expose the plaintiff to public contempt, ridicule, aversion or disgrace, or induce an evil opinion of him in the minds of right-thinking persons, and to deprive him of their friendly intercourse in society.'” Fahey v. Breakthrough Films & Television Inc., No. 21-CV-3208 (PAE) (SLC), 2022 WL 6244313, at *25 (S.D.N.Y. July 7, 2022) (quoting Moraes v. White, No. 21-CV-4743 (PAE), 2021 WL 5450604, at *9 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 22, 2021)), adopted by 2022 WL 4547438 (Sept. 29, 2022). “Under New York law a defamation plaintiff must establish five elements: (1) a written defamatory statement of and concerning the plaintiff, (2) publication to a third party, (3) fault, (4) falsity of the defamatory statement, and (5) special damages or per se actionability.”

See, e.g., IBM Corp. v. Micro Focus (US), Inc., 2023 WL 3902955, at *9-10 (S.D.N.Y. June 8, 2023) (breach of contract claim preempted where plaintiff alleged defendant “breached the parties' agreements by exceeding its license to use [plaintiff]'s software”); Fahey v. Breakthrough Films & Television Inc., 2022 WL 6244313, at *25 (S.D.N.Y. July 7, 2022) (breach of contract claim preempted that was “based on allegations that the Defendants did something that the copyright laws reserve exclusively to Plaintiffs, i.e., reproduction of the Series”) (citation, alterations and quotation marks omitted), adopted by 2022 WL 4547438 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2022)

(quoting Jain v. Sec. Indus. & Fin. Mkts. Ass'n, No. 08-CV-6463, 2009 WL 3166684, at *9 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 28, 2009)). “To successfully assert both a cause of action for defamation and tortious interference, a plaintiff must allege an independent source of the alleged harm.” Fahey v. Breakthrough Films & Television Inc., No. 21-CV-3208, 2022 WL 6244313, at *26 (S.D.N.Y. July 7, 2022) (quotations omitted), report and recommendation adopted, 2022 WL 4547438, at *1 (Sept. 29, 2022). “[A] tortious interference claim seeking economic damages derived entirely from defamatory statements is properly dismissed as duplicative of a defamation claim.”