A judge dismissed poet Kimberly Marasco’s lawsuit, ruling the alleged similarities involved unprotectable ideas, themes and common phrases.Image credit (Taylor Swift Instagram)
Taylor Swift has won a court ruling to dismiss a copyright lawsuit filed by poet Kimberly Marasco, who alleged that the singer copied lyrics from her poems across multiple albums. Judge Aileen Cannon granted the motion on Monday, determining that Marasco’s claims lacked legal merit.Marasco had alleged that Swift copied lyrics from her 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. The poet’s complaint included specific claims of infringement across multiple albums spanning several years of Swift’s discography. According to Global News, which obtained the order on the motion to dismiss, the judge’s ruling determined that the works shared only “basic ideas and themes” such as a woman working in a corporate environment, being “gaslighted” and confronting adversity.
Judge’s rationale for dismissal
In her ruling, the judge concluded that these types of concepts fall outside copyright protection. “These are quintessential themes, concepts, and isolated words—exactly the kind of material copyright law does not protect,” Cannon wrote in the order. The judge identified additional commonalities between the works that do not constitute copyright infringement. The order specified that other basic ideas included “Ubiquitous metaphors (being ‘submerged’ under water, ‘tears as weapons,’ ‘desire as fuel and fire,’ becoming ‘the rain/storm’); and isolated common words and short phrases (‘tears,’ ‘running,’ ‘fire,’ ‘rain,’ ‘sky,’ ‘love,’ ‘invisible,’ ‘caged me,’ ‘flesh and blood,’ ‘it’s time to go’).”Cannon reinforced her position on what copyright law protects. “The allegedly infringed material — basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases — is not protected expression and cannot be infringed,” she wrote.
