Miley Cyrus Unable to Dismiss 'Flowers' Copyright Lawsuit over Bruno Mars Song: Judge

Miley Cyrus won’t be able to dismiss a copyright lawsuit alleging similarities between her 2023 hit “Flowers” and Bruno Mars’ 2013 track “When I Was Your Man.”

In an order denying the motion to dismiss on Tuesday, March 18 and obtained by PEOPLE, a judge denied the “Wrecking Ball” musician’s request to dismiss the lawsuit from Tempo Music Investments, which owns a share of the copyright for Mars’ song, from purchasing the catalog rights from the song’s co-writer Philip Lawrence.

According to the order, Cyrus, 32, and her legal team had a “misunderstanding” of the legal precedent surrounding what “exclusive” means, which the judge deemed “incorrect.”

“Ownership of ‘exclusive rights’ is not to be conflated with ‘exclusive ownership’ of rights. The ‘exclusive rights’ are what is owned collectively by the co‐owners,” the order states.

Per the order, “Lawrence’s interest was a co‐ownership interest in the exclusive rights of the copyright.”

“By transferring all of that interest, Tempo now steps into Lawrence’s shoes and is a co‐owner of the exclusive rights of the copyright,” the filing reads.

A lawyer for Tempo Music Investments tells PEOPLE in a statement that they are “thrilled” but not “surprised” by the ruling.

“Our client is looking forward to having this case proceed to be resolved on its merits and are extremely confident in prevailing,” said their attorney Alex Weingarten.

Reps for Cyrus did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The “Jaded” musician was initially sued in September over similarities between her 2023 hit and “When I Was Your Man.”

In the lawsuit obtained by PEOPLE and filed in a Los Angeles court, Tempo Music Investments — which owns a partial copyright in Mars’ hit after it acquired songwriter Lawrence’s music catalog — alleged there were “striking similarities” between the pair of songs upon the release of “Flowers.”

The complaint further added that “Flowers” “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” and claimed there was “unauthorized reproduction, distribution and exploitation” of Mars’ track.

Songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack — who wrote “Flowers” with Cyrus — were included as among multiple defendants, along with Sony Music Publishing and Apple. However, Mars, 39, was not named in the lawsuit.

In the filing, Tempo Music Investments asked that the defendants listed stop reproducing, distributing or publicly performing “Flowers.” Additionally, they were requesting an undetermined amount of damages.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Reps for Cyrus and Mars did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time.

In November 2024, the “We Can’t Stop” hitmaker denied allegations of plagiarism and filed to dismiss the lawsuit over “Flowers.”

Because Tempo Music Investments only partially owned the song, Cyrus’ attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that “only owners of exclusive rights may sue for copyright infringement” and “an assignee of only one co-author lacks exclusive rights and, therefore, also lacks standing to sue for infringement.”

At the time, Cyrus and Tempo’s legal team did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.