Ed Sheeran wins copyright case, as jury rules he did not steal Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’

After two days of deliberation, jurors in Ed Sheeran‘s copyright infringement trial have unanimously found that he did not copy Marvin Gaye’s 1973 song “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 track “Thinking Out Loud.”

The heirs of Gaye’s co-writer on the hit, Ed Townsend, had alleged in a 2017 lawsuit that Sheeran’s song had “overt common elements” and “striking similarities” to the classic, while Sheeran’s team argued in a court filing that any similarities are a coincidence.

“The two songs share versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters,” Sheeran’s team reportedly wrote.

The hitmaker himself testified during the first week of the trial, saying that “most pop songs can fit over most pop songs.” That squares with what he’s said before, that “there’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music.” Sheeran himself has performed a mashup of the two songs in concert.

During his testimony, Sheeran pulled out his guitar to demonstrate his songwriting process for his lawyer and the jury. He even sang part of his hit that’s under fire. He said hadn’t heard Gaye’s classic until after he released “Thinking Out Loud.” Instead, he testified, he drew inspiration from another rock legend, Van Morrison.

Compare the songs below:

The singer notably missed his grandmother’s funeral in Ireland to be in the courtroom. According to the Daily Mail, his father, John, told people at the crowded service that he was “so upset” he couldn’t be there, but that he had to “be thousands of miles away in a court in America defending his integrity.”

Sheeran had previously been accused of copyright infringement. In April 2022, he won a similar lawsuit in the United Kingdom over his 2017 song “Shape of You,” after musician Sami Switch alleged that it was too close to his 2015 song “Oh Why.” He also settled a 2016 lawsuit that accused him of having copied the 2014 song “Photograph” from Matt Cardle’s tune “Amazing.”

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He said after his court victory in 2022 that he was happy to be vindicated, but he was frustrated.

“I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim,” he said in a video posted to social media. “It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.”

He went even further during his testimony in this last case, proclaiming that, if he lost, he might make a major life change.

“If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping,” Sheeran said. “I find it to be really insulting. I work really hard to be where I’m at.”

Even without the trial and the favorable verdict, Sheeran was having a huge career week. The docuseries Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All landed on Disney+ on May 3, while his fifth album, Subtract, comes out May 5.