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Sean Hall and Nathan Butler told a Los Angeles
federal judge they will dismiss their 2017 case with prejudice,
which means it cannot be refiled.
A trial in the case had been scheduled to begin Jan. 17.
Monday's court papers, filed jointly by attorneys for both Swift
and the songwriters, did not say if there was a settlement.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to
requests for more information.
In "Shake It Off," Swift sings: "the players gonna play, play,
play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate,
hate."
"Playas Gon' Play," written by Hall and Butler, included the
phrases "playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate."
The song, performed by R&B group 3LW, was released in 2001 and
appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 and MTV's Total Request Live.
A judge dismissed the case in 2018, but a U.S. appeals court
revived it in 2019.
Swift told the court in August that she had never heard 3LW's
song before writing "Shake It Off." She said she had heard the
phrases "players gonna play" and "haters gonna hate" used
commonly to "express the idea that one can or should shrug off
negativity."
Hall and Butler said that the lyrics were too close for their
similarity to be a coincidence. They had asked for an
unspecified amount of money damages.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain; Editing by David Bario and Aurora
Ellis)
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