The US Federal Court has rejected all allegations that the pop superstar copied content from Kimberly Marasco's poems to compose many famous songs. The Court decided to reject the lawsuit and not allow poet Kimberly Marasco to continue suing with the same content. This means that the dispute between the two sides is officially closed.
The case began in 2024 when Kimberly Marasco filed a lawsuit against Taylor Swift Productions, claiming that many songs in the albums "Lover", "Folklore", "Evermore", "Midnights" and "The Tortured Poets Department" had used ideas, images and some words in poems she composed.
In the lawsuit, Kimberly Marasco mentioned a series of songs such as "The Man", "Illicit Affairs", "My Tears Ricochet", "Death by a Thousand Cuts", "Hoax", "Midnight Rain", "It's Time to Go" and many others. Then, she continued to add "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" and "The Manuscript" - two songs from the album "The Tortured Poets Department" - to the list of alleged copyright infringement.
According to Kimberly Marasco, the above songs have many similarities with her poems, from the themes of vulnerability, psychological manipulation to the use of some similar images, metaphors and phrases.
However, after reviewing the file, the court said that these arguments were not sufficient basis to conclude that Taylor Swift infringed copyright.
According to the judge, the similarities that Kimberly Marasco put forward are mainly ideas, themes and images that are popular in literature and music. Factors such as love, hurt, psychological manipulation, or familiar images such as rain, fire, sky, tears... are all popular creative materials, not protected by copyright law.
The court also emphasized that many words and phrases that Kimberly Marasco considers copied, such as "tears" (tears), "fire" (fire), "rain" (rain), "sky" (sky), "love", "invisible", "caged me", "flesh and blood" or "it's time to go", are widely used in literary and musical works, so they cannot be exclusively owned by any individual.
Besides, Kimberly Marasco also did not provide evidence that Taylor Swift approached or copied her poems before composing the above songs.
This is not the first time Kimberly Marasco has pursued a lawsuit against Taylor Swift. Previously, she had filed similar charges, but the first lawsuit was rejected by the court in 2025. Although continuing to amend the file and add songs to the album "The Tortured Poets Department", the court said that the new arguments did not change the nature of the case.
According to the judge, Kimberly Marasco has been facilitated to amend and supplement the lawsuit many times but still has not provided a legal basis convincing enough. Therefore, the court decided to permanently reject the lawsuit, meaning she cannot continue to sue Taylor Swift with similar accusations.
Throughout the trial process, Taylor Swift's side always denied the charges. The lawyer for the singer born in 1989 argued that Kimberly Marasco is trying to claim ownership of ideas, images and expressions that are commonly used in composition, while copyright law only protects the creative expression of the author but does not protect general ideas.
The lawsuit attracts attention because it relates to many songs from Taylor Swift's most successful albums, especially "The Tortured Poets Department" - an album released in 2024 that once dominated many international music charts. If the charges are accepted, Taylor Swift may face a prolonged copyright dispute related to her list of most famous works.
This victory continues to extend Taylor Swift's series of favorable results in copyright-related lawsuits. In many years of artistic activities, the singer of "The Fate of Ophelia" has been involved in copyright disputes many times, but most cases are resolved in a favorable direction or rejected by the court due to insufficient grounds.
