By Isabelle Wilson-
Relieved Ed Sheeran has won his copyright infringement trial , putting behind him the now proven baseless allegations against him.
Jurors at a federal court in Manhattan, New York City, heard arguments from both sides – as well as a few brief guitar sing-alongs from Sheeran and a recording of the star himself playing a “mash-up” of the two songs on stage.
Sheeran was accused of ripping off part of the famed soul track Gaye created with fellow songwriter Ed Townsend in a lawsuit originally filed by heirs of Townsend in 2017.
They alleged the British star’s 2014 number one has “striking similarities” to Let’s Get It On and “overt common elements” that infringe their copyright.
On Thursday, a New York jury decided that Sheeran did not infringe copyright of Let’s Get It On.
The global star added outside court that he was “unbelievable frustrated baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all”.
“We’ve spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords which are also different and used by songwriters every day, all over the world,” he said.
“These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before Let’s Get It On was written.”
He said they should be there for all songwriters to use and no one owns them, in the same way “no one owns the colour blue”.
Sheeran joking outside of court he “won’t have to give up my day job after all”.
He added: “I will never get that time back,” when referencing the fact he had to miss his beloved grandmother’s funeral due to the court case.
The performer, 32, had been sued by the heirs of the late Ed Townsend, who’s credited as having written Marvin Gaye ‘s song Let’s Get It On, which was released in 1973.
It was alleged that Sheeran’s song Thinking Out Loud – released in 2014 – plagiarised the other tune’s harmonic progressions as well as melodic and rhythmic elements.
Townsend’s estate were seeking a share of the profits from Sheeran’s award-winning song, whilst his defence argued that it had been created “without copying” Let’s Get It On.
The copyright infringement trial over the alleged similarities began last month on April 24 at the Manhattan Federal Court in New York and lasted almost two weeks.
A verdict has now been reached, with a jury finding in favour of Sheeran – ruling against the claim that he took harmonic progressions and other elements from Let’s Get It On.
Sheeran had attended the trial and testified, with him said to have even performed a version of Thinking Out Loud in the courtroom at one point during proceedings.
The musician – who won Grammy Awards for his song in 2016 – reportedly played a guitar in court to demonstrate how he came up with the lyrics and the chord progression.
Sheran had vowed the claim that he would quit the industry if he had been found to have copied Gaye’s tune.
Sheeran said he and other performers frequently perform “mash ups” of songs and that on other occasions he had combined Thinking Out Loud with Van Morrison’s Crazy Love and Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You.
.It is not the first time the star has been dragged to court over copyright allegations.
Ed Sheeran and his co-songwriters were awarded over £900,000 in legal costs in 2022, after winning their high court copyright trial over the hit Shape of You earlier this year.
In that trial, the singer and his co-writers Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon faced accusations that their track ripped off a 2015 song by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
But they failed on that occassion.
Today’s victory sends out a message to Sherran’s rivals to tread carefully when dealing with this mega star.