Yahoo Movies Ed Sheeran is headed back to court over an accusation that he copied a Marvin Gaye hit
Ed Sheeran is headed to court over a copyright lawsuit — again.
A judge ruled that the pop singer-songwriter must go to trial over accusations that his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud" stole from Marvin Gaye's 1973 single "Let's Get It On."
Sheeran's lawyers had tried to have the case dismissed, arguing that the alleged similarities (in chord progression and harmonic rhythm) are not copyrightable, but the plaintiffs argue that the specific combination of those elements is legally protected. Judge Louis Stanton has now ruled this debate has to be settled by a jury trial.
"The law does not support Sheeran's contention that the combination of LGO's chord progression and harmonic rhythm is insufficiently original to warrant it copyrightable," the judge wrote. "There is no bright-line rule that the combination of two unprotectable elements is insufficiently numerous to constitute an original work."
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images; Jim Britt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Ed Sheeran is headed to trial over accusations that his hit 'Thinking Out Loud' stole from Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On.'
Sheeran was first sued over the alleged connection between "Thinking Out Loud" and "Let's Get It On" in 2016 by the family of the late Ed Townsend, a co-writer of the 1973 song. That case is still pending. This is a different lawsuit, filed in 2018 by Structured Asset Sales, which owns a one-third stake in Townsend's copyrights.
This isn't Sheeran's first brush with copyright law. In 2017, he settled a lawsuit over the track "Photograph," and earlier this year he won a plagiarism lawsuit in the United Kingdom over his hit song "Shape of You."
"Whilst we're obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and we've become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no base to the claim," Sheeran said in a video to fans after the "Shape of You" victory. "It's really damaging to the songwriting industry."
No trial date has been set.
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