Katy Perry Wins in 'Dark Horse' Copyright Lawsuit Appeal

Katy Perry scored another decisive victory in court.

The 37-year-old Prism pop star has faced litigation over her 2013 smash “Dark Horse” for years, and a federal appeals court just made a decision on Thursday (March 10).

Click inside to read more…

If you don’t remember, a rapper named Marcus Gray sued her in 2014, accusing her of ripping off his song “Joyful Noise.” Jurors later awarded him the verdict at first, but a judge overturned that decision in 2020, saying that the rhythm she allegedly copied was too simple for copyright protection.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld that decision in a 3-to-0 vote, via Billboard, refusing to reinstate the $2.8 million copyright infringement verdict because the two songs share only basic musical “building blocks.”

“The portion of the Joyful Noise ostinato that overlaps with the Dark Horse ostinato consists of a manifestly conventional arrangement of musical building blocks,” the appeals court wrote.

“Allowing a copyright over this material would essentially amount to allowing an improper monopoly over two-note pitch sequences or even the minor scale itself.”

Unless the case heads to the U.S. Supreme Court, the ruling ends years of litigation over “Dark Horse.” Check out the full filing at Billboard.com.

Katy Perry also recently revealed that everyone’s been singing one of her hit songs wrong.