A jury in New York decided Thursday that Ed Sheeran did not copy Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.”
“I am obviously very happy with the outcome of the case and it looks like I am not having to retire from my day job after all,” Sheeran told reporters outside the courtroom. He had testified that he was “done” if he lost the case.
“At the same time I’m unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.”
The estate of “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Townsend Jr. filed a lawsuit against Sheeran in 2016 over what it called “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” between it and “Thinking Out Loud.” (The case was dismissed in February 2017 due to improper service of papers but was successfully refiled in July 2017.)
On the stand, Sheeran countered that “most pop songs can fit over most pop songs,” using the Beatles’ “Let It Be” and Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” as well as Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" and Lewis Capaldi’s "Someone You Loved" as examples, according to reporting.
Sheeran said Thursday it was “devastating” to be accused of stealing Gaye’s song and said he will not be “a piggybank for anyone to shake.”
It took three hours of deliberations for the jury to decide that Sheeran is not liable for copyright infringement.
Last April, Sheeran beat a 2019 plagiarism lawsuit filed over his song “Shape Of You.” After an 11-day trial in London, a judge ruled that even though there were “similarities” between the song and one by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue, Sheeran and co-writers Johnny McDaid and Steve McCutcheon “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied the melody.
After the verdict, Sheeran complained that claims of copyright infringement “are way too common now” and are “really damaging to the songwriting industry.” He added: “There are only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen. This really does have to end.”
(Last June, Sheeran, McDaid and McCutcheon were awarded nearly $1.5 million in legal costs.)
In 2018, Sheeran settled a copyright infringement lawsuit from songwriters who alleged that his 2014 hit “Photograph” was a “note-for-note copying” of their 2009 song “Amazing.” That same year, two songwriters filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Sheeran that claimed the melody of “The Rest Of Our Life” – which Sheeran wrote for country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill – is ripped from their song “When I Found You.” The case was later settled.