Taylor Swift's hit song "Shake It Off" has been a center of controversy despite its popularity as a musical trio accused her of copyright. Today, the singer's legal team blasts their accuser's experts, saying they're not qualified.
According to Billboard, the pop star's legal team are requesting a federal judge to remove the "unqualified" expert witnesses from her upcoming trial.
The lawsuit has been five years in the making as it's been in litigation for quite some time, and Swift finally got the chance to face the court in a jury trial in January.
The all-female group 3LW accused Swift of stealing the lyrics from their song "Playas Gon' Play."
Even though the "Out of the Woods" hitmaker and her lawyers wanted to let go of the case, the judge overseeing the lawsuit refused to dismiss it.
Taylor Swift's Legal Team Wants 'Unqualified' Expert Witnesses to Stay Out of the Case
For the scheduled trial in January, both music acts will rely on expert testimony in order for their case to be strong in front of the jury.
However, Swift's lawyers mentioned in a court filing that 3LW's experts are not qualified enough to be included in their case.
They also alleged that one of the experts has "unsupported, purely subjective, and irrelevant arguments."
The lawyer noted that the expert's deposition testimony "confirms he is simply making it up as he goes along."
Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' vs 3LW's 'Playas Gon' Play'
The case has been going on for five years as it was filed in 2017 by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler.
The lyrics in question were "playas, they gonna play, haters, they gonna hate" which they alleged sounded similar to Swift's "'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."
The 32-year-old pop star's team has been trying to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the words "players" and "haters" are too common to be copyrighted.
Last month, Swift filed a sworn declaration, saying the song was entirely wirtten by her and she never heard "Palays Gon' Play" before.
Explaining how the song came to fruition, the "Paper Rings" hitmaker said she drew inspiration from her life experiences, especially when dealing with public scrutiny.
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