Taylor Swift's lawyers have requested a federal judge to drop a copyright lawsuit against the singer, arguing that the phrase "players gonna play and haters gonna hate" is a cliche that should be in the public domain.
Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who co-wrote the track "Playas Gon' Play" for the girl band 3LW filed a case against Swift, 28, alleging lifting the lyrics from the song.
The chorus of 2001 song includes the phrase, "Playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate."
Hall and Butler claimed that Swift's 2014 song "Shake It Off" infringed on their lyrics with its chorus - "Players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."
According to Variety, the "Reputation" singer's legal counsel moved to dismiss the case saying, "There can be no copyright protection in 'playas, they gonna play and haters, they gonna hate,' because it would impermissibly monopolise the idea that players will play and haters will hate.
"Plaintiffs' claim to being the only ones in the world who can refer to players playing and haters hating is frivolous... Providing a copyright monopoly in the phrase would prevent others from sharing the idea that players play and haters hate."
The lawyers also said the phrase is one of the "public domain cliches" and argued that courts have consistently maintained that short phrases like these cannot be a subject to copyright.
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