“Lyrically, there are enough similarities for listeners to think that ‘Flowers’ is intentionally responding to the earlier song. But even if that’s the case, so what? Using one song to reply to another isn’t infringement.” — Joseph Fishman, professor at Vanderbilt Law School and music law expert.

Does this mean there’s no chance of Mars and his co-writers being added as co-writers to the “Flowers” credits? Not necessarily. While Cyrus may be legally protected from the “Your Man” writers, she might choose to include them out of goodwill and to avoid further conflicts.