The wedding presents just keep on coming. Three days after Taylor Swift‘s marriage to Travis Kelce, a federal judge dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit filed 14 months ago by a little-known Florida poet who claimed that the superstar copied phrases from her poems in more than a dozen songs.
United States District Judge Aileen Cannon, who has become a bit of a celebrity herself in recent years, ruled against plaintiff Kimberly Marasco and in favor of defendants Swift, Aaron Dessner, Republic Records and Universal Music Group. In the document dismissing the case, Cannon concluded “that Plaintiff’s poems do not contain protectable expression and that, regardless, Plaintiff has failed to plausibly plead copying.”
Cannon noted that Marasco conceded that one of the poetry books she published had sold only about 3,000 copies globally, and that none of them were being actively promoted. Cannon singled out some of the instances in which Marasco claimed her poetry ended up in Swift’s lyrics, writing that it was a stretch to imagine the lines had enough similarity to make a plausible assumption Swift or her co-defendants had seen the books — but that there still would not be a case even if the singer had been proven to find inspiration in the poet’s ideas.
