A Massachusetts man is pursuing a $400 billion ($430 billion) lawsuit against Bon Jovi, Time Warner and Major League Baseball, among others.

Last year, Samuel Bartley Steele filed a lawsuit against the defendants for allegedly ripping off his ode to the Boston Red Sox entitled (Man I Really) Love This Team.

According to the complaint, the song was released in October 2004 and performed by the Bart Steele Band.

Mr Steele says he handed out copies to Red Sox executives, sent copies of the song to players, performed it live on local television and sent it to MLB with the idea for a "country" song that would market baseball.

During the 2007 play-offs, Bon Jovi released a song, I Love This Town, that was used by MLB to promote baseball on Time Warner's TBS cable station.

Mr Steele claimed that frontman Jon Bon Jovi either heard the song when he was campaigning for John Kerry in Boston in 2004 or that some executive passed it along to him.

A district judge ruled that no reasonable jury could conclude there was substantial similarity between the songs and dismissed the claim.

But Red Sox fans don't give up very easily. Mr Steele has now taken his $US400 billion claim to an appeals court.

- Reuters