Taylor Swift has finally won a copyright lawsuit over song lyrics, which her legal team described as “absurd”.

The infringement case was brought forward by Kimberly Marasco, a self-published poet from Florida. She alleged that the pop star stole lines and inspiration from her poems to help form the lyrics to over a dozen songs.

Songs she claims her lyrics were used for include cuts from albums including ‘Evermore’, ‘Folklore’, ‘Midnights’, ‘Lover’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.

In court yesterday (Monday July 6), federal judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case, saying that the only common ground between the poems and the lyrics were vague references to “gaslighting” as well as “ubiquitous metaphors” and “common observations”.

In her decision, the Judge said (via Billboard): “These are quintessential themes, concepts, and isolated words – exactly the kind of material copyright law does not protect. The allegedly infringed material – basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases – is not protected expression and cannot be infringed.”

Marasco first filed a lawsuit against Taylor Swift Productions in 2024, claiming at the time that lines from her poems had been stolen by the pop star and used in songs including ‘The Man’, ‘My Tears Ricochet’ and ‘Illicit Affairs’. She then raised another case against the singer herself over mostly the same accusations.

Swift’s legal team have repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing, and the first lawsuit was thrown out in September, with the Judge ruling that the phrases were too “common” to be owned or stolen.

“This is plaintiff’s second frivolous and harassing lawsuit against artist,” Swift’s attorney, Douglas Baldridge said at the time, adding that the lawsuit and claims were “absurd and legally baseless.”

With Monday’s ruling, the judge refused to allow Marasco the chance to adjust and refile her case – highlighting how previous, similar lawsuits had been thrown out already.

“Plaintiff has had ample opportunity to plead her claims,” the filing read, according to Billboard. “The defects identified are not pleading defects curable by more careful drafting – they are defects in the underlying works themselves, which consist of ideas, themes, metaphors, and isolated words that no amendment can transform into protectable expression.”

The latest case alleged that Swift had stolen lines from her poems to write songs including ‘The Manuscript’ and ‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’.

The Judge ruled on Monday that the phrases alleged to have been stolen, including “it’s time to go”, “fire”, “rain”, “sky”, “tears”, “running” and “love”, were too common to be copyrighted, and had “ideas metaphors, contexts, and themes” that were too general to be infringed upon.

“Each addition rests entirely on unprotectable content […] In sum, none of plaintiff’s 12 counts identifies any protected expression,” the judge wrote, adding that Marasco was claiming infringement on things that are “common observation” and include “the theme of ‘creative resilience’”.

Taylor Swift’s reps have not publicly commented on the ruling. Marasco has said that she “disagrees with the decision and will be appealing it”.

Elsewhere Swift married Travis Kelce at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Friday night (July 3). Guests included Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez, Jack Antonoff, the Haim sisters, Sombr, Ellie Goulding, Camila Cabello, Machine Gun Kelly, the Chainsmokers, Lucy Dacus, Benson Boone and more, and performances came from Paul McCartney and Stevie Nicks.

The post Taylor Swift wins “absurd” copyright lawsuit over her song lyrics appeared first on NME.