AUSTRALIAN band the John Butler Trio could be in for a windfall after one of their hits was echoed in a Super Bowl TV ad.

Copyright lawyers say an advertisement for Oikos Greek yoghurt, which aired during the third quarter of the game, contains an almost identical riff to that at the start of Butler's 2003 hit, Zebra.



The yoghurt company has apologised to the band and promised to investigate.



Judge for yourself. Watch the ad and listen to the song below



"A question about the music in our Super Bowl commercial has been brought to our attention," it said on a Facebook post.



"We are working to fully understand and address the situation. We apologise for any concerns this has caused John Butler



"Trio's band members and fans."



The band's management confirmed it was looking into the matter after fans sent alerts on Twitter.



"Thank you everyone for making us aware of the ... TV ad," it tweeted.



"We will be seeking advice as how to address the issue."



Intellectual property lawyer Nicholas Pullen said copyright infringements often arose when independent musicians were hired to do soundtracks for ads.



"The advertiser ends up having to pay out because the independent muso has either inadvertently or actually tried to mimic that tune," he said.



Mr Pullen said the most famous music intellectual property case involved Beatle George Harrison, who was sued by The Chiffons for plagiarising their song He's So Fine in his hit My Sweet Lord.



A judge found Harrison had unintentionally plagiarised the song.



"If George Harrison gets done on that, I would have thought the John Butler Trio have a pretty good case," Mr Pullen said.



"And when you're talking about an ad that gets that sort of exposure, you are talking (about) very high six-figure sums."



The ad, which stars John Stamos, aired to more than 111 million Super Bowl fans. It was the most watched program in US history.



A 30-second advertising spot during the Super Bowl reportedly cost $3.5 million.



Originally published as Super Bowl TV ad may earn big score