Miley Cyrus and her co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack were accused last September in a lawsuit of plagiarizing Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” in her 2023 hit single “Flowers”. The suit was filed by Tempo Music, a company that owns a portion of the song – purchased from Philip Lawrence, one of the co-writers of the song along with Mars, Ari Levin, and Andrew Wyatt; Mars was not named as a plaintiff.

On 21 November, Cyrus and her co-writers filed a dismissal response to the lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles. They denied any exploitation of Mars’ track while working on “Flowers” and alleged a “fatal flaw” in the copyright claim: Mars and two other co-writers of “When I Was Your Man” are not parties to the lawsuit, leading to invalidation of the lawsuit.

But now, on Tuesday (March 18), U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson rejected the previous argument made by Cyrus' legal team, claiming that it is a "misunderstanding" of the legal precedents regarding copyright:

"Tempo now steps into Lawrence’s shoes and is a co‐owner of the exclusive rights of the copyright [...] Because Lawrence as a co‐owner could sue for infringement, Tempo as co‐owner, in lieu of Lawrence, can sue for infringement without joining the other co‐owners of the copyright."

The Judge states that the argument of Cyrus' lawyers impose an extreme limitation: "If, as songwriter defendants’ arguments seem to suggest, a co‐owner’s right to sue for infringement is lost upon transfer, then if all original co‐authors transferred their interest, the copyright could never be enforced," the judge wrote, adding that, if upheld, it would change copyright law in a way that would have an economic and creative impact:

"[...] such a limitation would dimmish the value of jointly owned copyrights, because buyers would be less interested in purchasing a copyright that they cannot enforce, thereby disincentivizing co‐authorship and collaboration in works."

According to some media reports, Tempo lead attorney, Alex Weingarten, shared the following statement in the wake of today's initial ruling in the company's favor:

"We are thrilled but not the least surprised by the ruling. Our client is looking forward to having this case proceed to be resolved on its merits and are extremely confident in prevailing.”

"Flowers", was a huge success for Cyrus, winning her two GRAMMY awards – "Record Of The Year" and "Best Pop Solo Performance" – and staying eight weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song sparked conversation among fans due to its lyrical similarities to "When I Was Your Man", which many saw as a reference or homage to Mars' song.