Miley Cyrus claims there’s a “fatal flaw” in ‘Flowers’ copyright infringement lawsuit, seeks dismissal

nme.com:

Miley Cyrus has said there is a “fatal flaw” in the copyright infringement lawsuit against her song ‘Flowers’.In September, a suit was filed in a Los Angeles court by Tempo Music Investments claiming that the Grammy-winning song included an unauthorised “exploitation” of Bruno Mars’ 2013 track ‘When I Was Your Man’.Cyrus’ co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack were also named in the suit, as well as Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart and other companies who were accused of distributing the track.Tempo Music said that they own a portion of ‘When I Was Your Man’ after purchasing it from Mars’ co-writer Phil Lawrence.

The company is seeking damages and has demanded a court order that prohibits Cyrus from reproducing, distributing or publicly performing the song.

In her first response to the suit, Cyrus has claimed that the case has a “fatal flaw” in the fact that Mars and his other co-writers have chosen not to sue, and so has called for the suit to be dismissed.“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,” said Cyrus’ attorney Peter Anderson. “That is a fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff’s claim.”Their argument is that Tempo’s acquisition of “partial interest” of the song from Lawrence only gives them “non-exclusive rights” to it, and under US copyright law this does not give him “standing” to sue.“Plaintiff brings this copyright infringement action alone – without any of that musical composition’s co-authors or other owners,” Anderson continued.