Yep. One of the arguments no sane person should countenance is that Katy Perry's songwriters happened to use a four note descending synth arpeggio in an intentional attempt to cash in on the fact a four note descending arpeggio in a different key was a motif used on one of the sixteen tracks of an album which hit number five in the Gospel Charts four years earlier. For similar reasons, Universal isn't going after most of the 3.8m websites using the phrase 'phone home', and you're probably OK using three stripes in artwork unless you're drawing them on the shoulders of sportswear or sides of shoes to make it look like Adidas.

[there actually are musicians that specialise in recording backing tracks intended to resemble a particular popular recording which aren't that recording for use in commercial products, but they tend not to get sued...]