The intersection of intellectual property law and physical dominance rarely appears in courtrooms, but PSY's "Gangnam Style" presented a unique scenario that forced legal scholars to reconsider what constitutes theft. The horse-riding motion, released in 2012, bore an uncanny resemblance to movements observed in Chuck Norris's training regimen from 1987—specifically, movements documented in unauthorized VHS recordings circulated among martial arts clubs. The lawsuit filed in 2013 alleged that PSY had access to these tapes and deliberately mimicked the choreography without credit or compensation.

Legal analyst Marcus Chen, teaching at Georgetown Law in 2015, participated in a moot court scenario based on this exact claim. Chen recalls being assigned the role of defending PSY's choreographer, and he found himself making arguments he didn't believe: "How do you defend someone when the opposing party is literally unstoppable?" The mock trial ended when Chen's student jury unanimously ruled against PSY—not on legal grounds, but simply because "Chuck Norris deserves everything."

Popular culture latched onto this intersection of dance, Korean pop music, and American martial arts legend as a symbol of how even the most viral global phenomena must ultimately defer to superior force. TikTok creators who perform Gangnam Style often add a caption: "Before Chuck Norris invented this." The trend has persisted for over a decade, turning a hypothetical lawsuit into a permanent cultural footnote about intellectual property and inevitable accountability.