Ed Sheeran is expected to testify in a New York City courtroom this week as he faces accusations that his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” infringed on Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On.”
The estate of Ed Townsend Jr., who co-wrote the Gaye song, filed a lawsuit against Sheeran in 2016 over what it called “striking similarities” and “overt common elements.” It alleged that Sheeran “copied the ‘heart’ of ‘Let’s’ and repeated it continually throughout ‘Thinking.’” (The case was dismissed in February 2017 due to improper service of papers but was successfully refiled in July 2017.)
Lawyers representing Sheeran countered that the two songs share “versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters.”
In 2019, Judge Louis L. Stanton rejected Sheeran’s motion to have the lawsuit dismissed and wrote in his ruling that the average person “could conclude that parts of [‘Thinking Out Loud’] were appropriated from [‘Let’s Get It On’].”
The plaintiffs noted that in a 2014 concert in Zurich, Sheeran performed a mash-up of the songs, which only highlighted their similarities. Stanton previously said he would consider a motion to show the video to jurors.
Gaye’s estate – which won a $5.3 million U.S. in its case against Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. over similarities between their 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It up.”
Amy Wadge and Julian Williams, who co-wrote “Thinking Out Loud,” are not named as defendants.
Jury selection and opening statements begin Monday and the trial is scheduled to last a week.
Another lawsuit over "Thinking Out Loud," filed in 2018, is pending. Last September, Stanton rejected a motion to dismiss, writing: “There is no bright-line rule that the combination of two unprotectable elements is insufficiently numerous to constitute an original work. A work may be copyrightable even though it is entirely a compilation of unprotectable elements."
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.