A federal judge has denied a dismissal motion in the copyright infringement lawsuit against Miley Cyrus's "Flowers," which allegedly copies elements from Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man." The case, filed by Tempo Music Investments in September 2024, will proceed.

Tempo Music Investments, which purchased an interest in "When I Was Your Man" from co-writer Philip Lawrence in 2020, claims Cyrus and others used portions of the Mars hit without authorization to create "Flowers."

The defendants, including Cyrus's legal team, argued that Tempo lacked standing to sue for infringement as an assignee of a single co-author. However, Judge Dean Pregerson rejected this argument, stating:

"When a co‐owner transfers his or her interest, the transferee stands in the shoes of the transferor, making the transferee a co‐owner in the copyright. Because Lawrence as a co-owner could sue for infringement, Tempo as co‐owner can sue for infringement without joining the other co‐owners."

The case's defendants include:

• Miley Cyrus
• Warner-Tamerlane Publishing
• Deezer
• Sony Music Publishing
• Concord
• iHeartMedia
• Live Nation
• Walmart
• Xandrie (Qobuz parent company)

Defendants are now required to submit formal answers to the complaint, with some responses due by specific deadlines. Notably, Deezer must respond by April 9th, and Xandrie by March 26th.

Related Articles

Previous Articles