Miley Cyrus and other defendants in a copyright lawsuit involving the singer’s 2023 hit Flowers have lost their bid to have the case thrown out of court.
In an order issued on Tuesday (March 18), Judge Dean D. Pregerson of the US District Court for the Central District of California said rights investment firm Tempo Music can continue with its lawsuit, which alleges that Flowers infringed on the copyright of Bruno Mars‘ 2013 hit When I Was Your Man.
Cyrus is one of a number of defendants in the case, along with Sony Music Entertainment, as well as Cyrus’ co-writers on Flowers and a whole host of music publishers and retailers.
In November, lawyers for Miley Cyrus and other songwriter defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that it has a “fatal flaw” – namely, that only Tempo Music, and not any of the other rightsholders in Mars’ When I Was Your Man, are suing for copyright infringement.
Tempo says it owns a share in When I Was Your Man because it acquired the catalog of Philip Lawrence, one of the song’s co-writers, in 2020.
“The Copyright Act expressly provides that only a legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive copyright right may sue for infringement. [Tempo Music] is neither and, as a result, it lacks standing to bring this action,” Cyrus’ lawyers wrote.
However, in his order on Tuesday, Judge Pregerson rejected this argument, saying it stemmed from a “misunderstanding” of the word “exclusive” in copyright law.
“The heart of… defendants’ arguments is that a co‐owner cannot transfer an exclusive right because a co‐owner is not the exclusive owner of the rights. This is incorrect,” Judge Pregerson wrote in his order, which can be read in full here.
“Ownership of ‘exclusive rights’ is not to be conflated with ‘exclusive ownership’ of rights. The ‘exclusive rights’ are what is owned collectively by the co‐owners. Each co‐owner of a copyright owns an interest in the exclusive rights that make up a copyright.”
Citing legal precedent, the judge added: “A co‐owner may sue a third party for infringement without joining the other co‐owners.”
Judge Pregerson also hinted that, if Cyrus’ lawyers’ interpretation of copyright law was accepted, it could have threatened the value of music copyrights – an especially salient point at a time when music investment companies have invested billions of dollars into buying (often) partial rights to songs and recordings.
“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,” the judge wrote.
“Additionally, such a limitation would dimmish 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.”
“If… 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.”
US District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson
Tempo Music – a rights-acquiring fund launched by private equity giant Providence – filed the lawsuit last September, alleging that Flowers copied “numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of When I Was Your Man.
The music investment firm’s lawyers highlighted the similarity between some of the lyrics; for instance, When I Was Your Man contains the lines “I should have brought you flowers/And held your hand,” while Flowers contains the lines “I can buy myself flowers/And I can hold my own hand.”Music Business Worldwide
