Taylor Swift’s wedding week just keeps getting better. Fresh off tying the knot with NFL star Travis Kelce in New York City, the pop superstar has also emerged victorious in court after a US judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit accusing her of copying lyrics from a self-published poet.
In a ruling issued this week, US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon said “the allegedly infringed material – basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases — is not protected expression and cannot be infringed”, entertainment news outlet E! News reported today.
Poet Kimberly Marasco had alleged lyrics from Swift’s 2019 hit The Man infringed on one of her poems, but the court found she failed to show either that Swift had access to her work or that the two were substantially similar.
The judge also dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Marasco cannot bring the same claims against Swift again after previously filing a similar case.
Justice Cannon said that “the defects identified are not pleading defects curable by more careful drafting”, adding that the alleged similarities centred on ideas and themes that cannot be protected by copyright law.
Swift’s legal team had earlier urged the court to throw out what it described as a meritless case.
“This is plaintiff’s second frivolous and harassing lawsuit against artiste,” Swift’s lawyer Douglas Baldridge was quoted as saying a court filing, adding that the claims were “absurd and legally baseless”.
