Katy Perry’s Legal Team Denies Copyright Claims

“Yeah, I’m thankful. Scratch that baby I’m grateful.” Yes, you guessed it. “Smile” is the latest Katy Perry song to be facing a copyright claim from a fledgling musician who thinks the superstar stole her lines. Like literally.

Songwriter Claims Katy Perry’s 2020 Single Bears Resemblance To Her 2014 Song

Prior to this, Katy Perry had been sued by another party for plagiarism on “Dark Horse” but emerged victorious. Will she be able to do the same in this latest round of appeal?

A songwriter named Michele Ronk originally filed a federal lawsuit against Katy Perry (whose real name is Katheryn Hudson) on October 26, 2020. While she first pursued the lawsuit on her own without legal representation, she has since sought legal advice.

She describes herself as a singer/songwriter dedicated to advocating for mental health awareness. While she hasn’t exactly had her big break yet, she’s been in the music industry for over a decade. In fact the song that allegedly inspired Perry’s was written in 2014.

She contends that Perry consciously used similar cues from her song “Upgraded 2.0” to craft her hit single, “Smile.” In her suit, she claims Perry used around 12 similar story elements or lyrics that “make up the selection and arrangement and tell the story.”

For example, she compares her lyrics “I’ve been upgraded 2.0, the old me faded … I’ve been reinstated,” to Perry’s song lyrics, “Remodeled, Used to be dull, now I sparkle.” She also pointed out similarities between her lyrics “I messed up all over the place, not knowing myself,” and Perry’s that goes “Not myself, not my best.”

She further claimed that Perry and her songwriting team knowingly used “different synonyms, at times, to attempt to obscure the similarities in the misappropriated lyrical phrases and selection of elements to the story.”

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Katy Perry’s Legal Team React To Lawsuit By Unknown Artist

Perry’s lawyer replied to the claims by stating that Perry’s “Smile” was inspired by her personal battle with depression and had nothing to do with Ronk’s song.

The lawyer also pointed out that there is no evidence Perry had access to her work given that she wasn’t popular enough to catch the superstar’s attention.

In 2022, a judge dismissed the case, saying that the lyrics “are not sufficiently similar to establish striking similarity and a presumption of access, as a matter of law.”

Ronk has reportedly filed to appeal the case.

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