Katy Perry wins appeal in 'Dark Horse' copyright suit

A federal appeals court ruled in singer Katy Perry's favour in the 'Dark Horse' copyright lawsuit against Christian rapper Marcus Gray.

Gray, whose stage name is Flame, first sued Perry in 2014, claiming her hit 'Dark Horse' was substantially similar to his song 'Joyful Noise'.

In 2019, a Los Angeles jury found Perry liable for infringement, but the verdict was overturned a year later when a judge ruled that the eight-note "ostinato" Perry allegedly copied lacked the "quantum of originality" to warrant copyright protection, reports variety.com.

Gray appealed the decision in October 2020, writing in a brief about the incriminating similarity of timbre between the songs, and arguing against the musicologists' use of databases of melodies to determine instances of similarities in previous works. On March 10, 2022, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court's overturning the initial jury verdict.

Perry's win in 2020 marked a rare occasion in which a court overturned a jury verdict in a copyright infringement case. That same year, Led Zeppelin defeated plaintiff Michael Skidmore over a factually similar suit over 'Stairway to Heaven'.