Thicke filed suit first to keep the Gayes from smearing him around town by claiming he'd stolen BL from GTGIU's copyright protected elements.

it wasn't any acknowledgement of guilt. neither was the defendants' settlement offer - they wanted to settle the case to avoid going through the depositions. and that makes sense b/c damaging info came out during the deps that have hurt Thicke's image and had nothing to do w/whether he improperly borrowed from GTGIU (his drug use and the fact that he didn't write much on Blurred Lines among other facts). defendants in civil suits regularly make settlement offers b/c they want to avoid going through the discovery process - especially high profile defendants.

and i dunno what happened between Gagz and Madge and whether Madge made a demand and they reached some agreement. but 'Born This Way' sounds a lot like 'Express Yourself' but then again 'EY' sounds a lot like the Staples Singers' 'Respect Yourself' so maybe Madge didn't make any demand or file any suit b/c she didn't wanna have to deal w/explaining that similarity. i dunno.

as for Mars and Ronson (creators of Uptown Funk) they may be in trouble after this verdict. b/c that song sounds like 'Fantastic Voyage' and some of The Time's songs. i dunno if any demands have been made and/or met between all the potential parties there.