Miley Cyrus‘ legal team made a case for the “Flowers” copyright lawsuit to be thrown out of court.
If you were unaware, the 31-year-old Grammy winner and her co-writers were sued in September amid allegations that the chart-topping song copied elements of Bruno Mars‘ hit “When I Was Your Man.”
Bruno was not involved in the lawsuit, which was filed by a company called Tempo Music Investments. They purchased a portion of the the song’s copyright from co-writer, Philip Lawrence.
In newly filed documents, Miley‘s team addressed the suit and explained why it did not hold up in court.
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According to court documents obtained by Billboard, Miley‘s team argued that the suit could not proceed since Bruno and two of his co-writers were not involved in it.
“Plaintiff unambiguously [says] that it obtained its claimed rights in the ‘When I Was Your Man’ copyright from only one of that musical composition’s four co-authors,” they wrote. “That is a fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff’s claim.”
They argued that Tempo only had “non-exclusive rights” to Bruno‘s song, which isn’t enough to support the lawsuit “without the consent of the other owners.”
Additionally, the team said that there were “striking differences in melody, chords, other musical elements, and words.”
Tempo’s legal team replied, claiming that the argument was a “bogus” argument.
“We’re not an assignee; we’re the owner of the copyright. The law is clear that we have the right to enforce our interest,” they said in a statement shared with Billboard.
Did you see that Miley is already teasing new music?
