Yoko Ono lost the legal bid Monday to forbid filmmakers to use a 15-second excerpt of Jonn Lennon’s famous song “Imagine” in a movie challenging the theory of evolution.

A New York federal judge denied Ono’s request to stop the producers of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" using the song fragment in the movie.

Ono claims the movie uses the excerpt without her permission, wrongly suggesting that she authorized or sponsored the film. She also sued the producers before the movie went into wider release, and she said she would appeal. The other plaintiffs are John Lennon’s sons, Sean and Julian.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein ruled that if the case went to court, the results would probably be similar, with the filmmakers winning the lawsuit under the fair use doctrine.

"That doctrine provides that the fair use of a copyrighted work for the purposes of criticism and commentary is not an infringement of copyright," Stein wrote in his decision in Manhattan federal court, as quoted by AP.

The movie, which opened on U.S. screens in April and is scheduled to be released in Canada later this month, encourages the intelligent design theory, which states that the universe is too complex to be explained by evolution alone.

The producers said the song excerpt, which states “nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too,” was very important to the movie because “it represents the most popular and persuasive embodiment of this viewpoint that the world is better off without religion.” The film is concluding that the idea supported in the song “Imagine” is wrong.

The song was recorded by John Lennon in 1971 and it is considered one of the greatest songs of all time, ranking no.3 on the list of great everlasting songs that the Rolling Stone magazine set up in 2004.