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PICTURED: Katy Perry

FIVE YEARS ago, pop singer Katy Perry was sued by US rapper, Flame, who claimed her 2013 MTV award-winning song Dark Horse was copied from a song he released in 2008.

Flame, born Marcus Gray, insisted Perry had heard his Grammy nominated song Joyful Noise with singer Lacrae and proceeded to copy it just years later.

Perry denied ever hearing the song and her team described the beat of both songs as "commonplace", arguing that because of that, Gray could not claim copyright.

The ongoing court case came to a close this week and during her closing arguments in court, Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera said: "They're trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone.”

However, Gray’s lawyers argued that the Roar singer and her team copied an important part of his song.

After a week long trial, nine jurors determined that the track directly copied the underlying beat of Gray’s track despite both Perry and producer Dr Luke insisting they’d never heard it as they don’t listen to Christian music.

The court ruled that Katy Perry, Juicy J and the six songwriters of Dark Horse were liable. How much Gray will be owed in damages is yet to be revealed.

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