Miley Cyrus says ‘Flowers’ didn’t infringe on Bruno Mars’ song

Miley Cyrus is seeking the immediate dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that she and her fellow songwriters copied portions of a Bruno Mars single when they wrote her Grammy-winning banger “Flowers.”

In a new dismissal motion filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Cyrus and her co-songwriters deny any claim that they copied protectable elements of Mars’ 2013 Hot 100 song “When I Was Your Man” when they wrote “Flowers”. But they say the case has a more pressing “incurable flaw,” arguing that the investment firm behind the lawsuit doesn’t have standing to sue without the song’s other co-writers, including Mars, being involved. Mars, in particular, is not a party to the suit.

“The songwriter defendants categorically deny copying, and the allegedly copied elements are random, scattered, unprotected ideas and musical blocks. However, plaintiff’s claim suffers from another fatal flaw that requires dismissal at the pleading stage: The Copyright Act expressly provides that only a legal owner or beneficiary of an exclusive copyright may bring an action for infringement. Plaintiff is neither and consequently lacks standing to bring this action,” the new filing obtained by Rolling Stone read.

The Mars song in question was co-written by Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt. The plaintiff in question is Tempo Music Investments, which bought Lawrence’s share. According to Cyrus’ motion, filed by prominent attorney Peter Anderson, Tempo does not have the necessary “exclusive” status because it only obtained rights from one of the four co-writers of the song and cannot act “unilaterally.”

“This is a fatal and incurable flaw in plaintiff’s claim,” the new filing argues. “An assignee of a single co-author has no exclusive rights and therefore no standing to sue for infringement.” The motion seeks dismissal without any chance of modification.

Tempo’s lawyer responded Thursday, calling the new motion a “technically bogus argument.” He said the copyright law in question limits the rights of assignees or licensees of copyright interests, not beneficial owners. In this case, his client is the full owner of Lawrence’s share, he said.

“We are not a transferee. We are the owner,” says attorney Alex Weingarten Rolling Stone. “It’s an intellectually dishonest move and an obvious dilatory tactic. I’m not saying anything about the merits of the case because this is a blatant copyright violation.”

In the lawsuit filed last September, Tempo claims that “Flowers” duplicates “numerous melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,'” including the song design and verse sequence, the connecting bass line, certain bars of chorus, certain theatrical musical elements, lyrical elements and specific chord progressions.” The filing calls it “undeniable” that “(‘Flowers’) would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man.’

In the new motion to dismiss, Cyrus and her co-writers argue that a lot of the songs share some chords, tones or words, and that copyright law doesn’t prohibit that. They also claim that the two songs “show striking differences in melody, chords, other musical elements, and lyrics.”

The complaint names Cyrus’ fellow songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack as co-defendants alongside Sony Music Publishing and distributors including Apple, Target and Walmart. A hearing on the new motion to dismiss was not immediately set.