Taylor Swift has won a court decision to dismiss a copyright lawsuit filed by poet Kimberly Marasco, who alleged that the singer copied lyrics from her poems on several albums. Judge Aileen Cannon granted the motion on Monday, determining that Marasco’s claims lacked legal merit.Marasco alleges that Swift copied lyrics from his poems for more than a dozen songs featured on her albums ‘Lover’, ‘Folklore’, ‘Evermore’, ‘Midnights’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, according to her lawsuit filed in February 2025. According to Global News, which obtained the order on the motion to dismiss, the judge’s ruling determined that the works only shared “basic ideas and themes” such as a woman working in a corporate environment, who was “gaslighted” and faced hardship.
Judge’s reason for dismissal:
In his decision, the judge concluded that these types of concepts fall outside of copyright protection. “These are quintessential themes, concepts, and isolated words — exactly the kind of material copyright law cannot protect,” Cannon wrote in the order.The judge recognized further similarities between the works that did not constitute copyright infringement. The order specifies that other basic ideas include “Ubiquitous metaphors (being ‘submerged’ under water, ‘tears as weapons,’ ‘desire as fuel and fire,’ becoming ‘rain/storm’); and isolated common words and short phrases (‘tears,’ ‘running,’ ‘fire,’ ‘rain,’ ‘sky,’ ‘love,’ ‘invisible,’ ‘invisible,’ walk’).“Cannon reinforced his position on what is protected by copyright law. “The allegedly infringed material — basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases — is not protected expression and cannot be infringed,” he wrote.
Related trademark lawsuit:
Swift faces additional legal challenges beyond the copyright case. He was also recently sued by a performer in Las Vegas who claimed his latest album violated trademark rights. The performer alleged in her complaint that sales of Swift’s album threatened to “drown” her long-running stage show and asked the court to block Swift from creating confusion with her album title.Swift’s attorneys asked the court to dismiss the trademark infringement lawsuit in May, describing the case as “just the latest attempt by the Plaintiff to generate publicity by associating himself with Ms. Swift” according to the defendant’s notice of motion and motion to dismiss.The decision marks another legal victory for Swift, whose latest studio album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ continues to be one of the biggest commercial successes of her career.