In September 2024, Tempo Music Investments filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Miley Cyrus, her co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack, Sony Music, and retailers distributing the single. Bruno Mars is noticeably absent from the list of plaintiffs. He did not file the suit, nor has he offered public support for the litigation.
The lawsuit exists because Tempo Music acquired a substantial portion of Philip Lawrence's catalog rights in 2020. Private equity firms and investment vehicles poured billions into song rights between 2019 and 2022. To recoup their balance sheet bets, these funds regularly monitor global streaming leaders for potential copyright claims.
Tempo's filing argued that "Flowers" copies the core melodic, harmonic, and lyrical components of Mars's song. The complaint claimed that Cyrus's chorus was an unauthorized derivative work that could not exist without the compositional architecture designed by The Smeezingtons.
Cyrus fired back aggressively. In February 2026 court filings, her legal counsel moved for immediate dismissal. Her attorneys cited bedrock principles of United States copyright law, stating plainly: "No one owns these words." The defense established that commonplace conversational idioms, giving someone flowers, walking on the sand, taking someone dancing, are unprotectable building blocks known in copyright doctrine as scènes à faire.
Musicologists defending Cyrus have demonstrated that while the lyrics intentionally echo Mars's themes as an artistic answer, the actual notes, pitch sequences, chord voicings, and rhythmic cadences are fundamentally distinct. The lawsuit tests whether an inversion of an idea constitutes copyright infringement or standard cultural conversation.
