Taylor Swift is appealing a federal judge’s decision to allow a copyright infringement lawsuit concerning her hit single “Shake It Off” to go to trial.
In a recent court filing, the singer claims that when the judge ruled on Dec. 9 that the two songwriters who allege she stole their lyrics and concept had presented a “genuine dispute” that should be resolved by a jury, he failed to consider something called the “extrinsic test.”
The main complaint claims that Sean Hall and Nathan Butler’s 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” by the all-female R&B group 3LW is strikingly similar to Swift’s 2014 pop anthem, particularly in the arrangement of the phrases “playas gonna play” and “haters gonna hate.”
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2017, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald in 2018, but it was resurrected on appeal and returned to his court by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
While Swift’s side made some “persuasive arguments,” Judge Fitzgerald said in his ruling attempting to deny Swift’s request for summary judgment three weeks ago that “numerous factors” still met the legal threshold for “potential substantial similarity between the lyrics and their sequential structure as framed by plaintiffs.”
Lawyers for Swift and her publishing partners argue that the “extrinsic test” and established Circuit law “mandate” that the court put more emphasis only on protectable elements while filtering out and disregarding phrases in the public domain in a new defence motion filed December 23 asking Judge Fitzgerald to reconsider his ruling.
The request for reconsideration will be heard on February 7 in Los Angeles.
Swift’s representative compared the lawsuit to a shakedown in 2018, after the case was successfully appealed following its dismissal.
