Miley Cyrus Loses Bid to Dismiss “Flowers” Copyright Lawsuit │ Exclaim!

Last September, Miley Cyrus was sued for copyright infringement over the alleged similarities between her Grammy-winning hit “Flowers” and the Bruno Mars song “If I Was Your Man.” Her legal team proceeded to call for its dismissal on the grounds that the case was being pursued not by Mars himself, but by the financial entity Tempo Music, which had bought the rights of his co-writer Justin Lawrence.

Yesterday (March 18), a Los Angeles federal judge rejected Cyrus’s bid for dismissal, calling her attorneys’ argument “incorrect” and a “misunderstanding” of existing legal precedents.

“Tempo now steps into Lawrence’s shoes and is a co‐owner of the exclusive rights of the copyright,” Judge Dean D. Pregerson wrote [via Billboard]. “Because Lawrence as a co‐owner could sue for infringement, Tempo as co‐owner, in lieu of Lawrence, can sue for infringement without joining the other co‐owners of the copyright.”

Cyrus’s legal team had argued that Tempo’s partial ownership of the rights was a “fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff’s claim.” 

“Such a limitation would diminish the value of jointly owned copyrights, because buyers would be less interested in purchasing a copyright that they cannot enforce, thereby disincentivizing co‐authorship and collaboration in works,” the judge wrote. “This would undermine Congress’s intent.”

He continued, “If, as songwriter defendants’ arguments seem to suggest, a co‐owner’s right to sue for infringement is lost upon transfer, then if all original co‐authors transferred their interest, the copyright could never be enforced.”

As the case moves ahead after this initial decision, Cyrus’s lawyers will shift focus to more substantive arguments regarding “Flowers” not infringing upon “When I Was Your Man” because they merely share “unprotected ideas and musical building blocks.”