Ed Sheeran just won the federal trial to determine if his song ‘Thinking Out Loud‘ infringes the copyright of Marvin Gaye‘s ‘Let’s Get It On.‘ While Sheeran and co-writer Amy Wadge‘s track has similar chord progressions to that of Gaye’s 1973 hit, the defense argued that those chords belonged to the songwriter’s toolkit long before even Gaye and co-writer Ed Townsend wrote ‘Let’s Get It On.’ After deliberating for three hours, the jury ultimately voted in favor of Sheeran, according to the New York Times.
‘I am, obviously, very happy with the outcome of this case, and it looks like I’m not having to retire from my day job, after all. But, at the same time, I am unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.’
-Sheeran stated outside the courthouse.
‘Thinking Out Loud’ was released back in 2014 as part of Sheeran’s second studio album, x. Ed Townsend’s family sued Ed Sheeran in 2016, but a federal judge delayed the case to await the verdict of another high-profile copyright case involving Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ The music industry has been closely following Sheeran’s case ever since.
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This is not the first time Sheeran has been sued for copyright infringement. In 2016, two songwriters, Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, sued Sheeran for copying parts of one of their songs for his track, ‘Photograph.’ The lawsuit was settled the following year and Sheeran credited Harrington and Leonard as co-writers on the track.
Additionally, Sheeran was involved in a plagiarism trial for ‘Shape of You,’ in which he was accused of stealing the track’s hook from a song by British songwriter Sami Chokri. After winning the case, Sheeran stated on social media that ‘coincidences are bound to happen if 60,000 songs are released every day on Spotify.’