A judge has opted to reject Miley Cyrus’s motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit filed over her Grammy-winning hit, Flowers.
The suit in question has been brought by Tempo Music Investments, which secured a quarter of the copyright of Bruno Mars When I Was Your Man from Phil Lawrence, one of its four writers (the others being Bruno Mars, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt).
In the lawsuit – filed last September – TMI alleges that Flowers copied several melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements from When I Was Your Man. In November, Miley Cyrus and her co-authors filed a motion to dismiss, saying Tempo lacked grounds to sue.
Cyrus’s team said TMI did not have the same standing to sue that Lawrence – from whom it bought its share in the song – had, as they say a co-author can sell their profit interest in a copyrighted work, but this doesn’t transfer their individual right to sue for infringement without consent from the song’s co-owners. As TMI opted to sue without backing from Mars, Levine and Wyatt, Cyrus says its suit has no standing.
In 2024, Cyrus and her attorney, Peter Anderson, suggested that Tempo Music Investment’s claim held a flaw: “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 authors,” they said. Their justification for this is that partial interest only gives “non-exclusive rights” and therefore, at least in the US, they do not have the right to sue.
Anderson went on to note: “Plaintiff brings this copyright infringement action alone, without… [the] co-authors or other owners. Without the consent of the other owners, a grant of rights from just one co-owner does not confer standing.”
TMI was quick to disagree, claiming: “They’re seeking to make bogus technical arguments because they don’t have an actual substantive defence to the case. The law is clear that we have the right to enforce our interest.”
The assigned judge, Dean D. Pregerson, appears to understand TMI’s point. “If someone wants to buy what someone owns, buy the entire thing, that includes the right to enforce that ownership against the rest of the world. If you don’t allow that, then you diminish the value of what you’re selling to the point where it may become worthless,” he said [via MusicRadar].
Mars hasn’t yet commented on the legal proceedings, not have any of When I Was Your Man’s co-writers, Phil Lawrence, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt.
Now that the judge has rejected Miley Cyrus’s motion to dismiss, she and her team will have to face Tempo Music Investments’ copyright claim.
Remind yourself what both songs sound like below:
