A jury trial will now be held for singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran about claims that he plagiarised portions of his 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” from Marvin Gaye’s 1972 hit “Let’s Get It On.” Billboard reports that the move was taken as a result of the federal judge rejecting the singer-plea songwriters to have the lawsuit dismissed. The case has been underway since 2018, and the decision was made. The plaintiffs in the “Thinking Out Loud” copyright lawsuit, who are also some of the rights holders to the Marvin Gaye song, are suing the British musician for $100 million in damages, but his attorneys are fighting the claim, describing the allegedly stolen song fragments as “commonplace” and thus unjustified as a basis for a copyright infringement claim.
Sheeran must go before a Manhattan federal jury, according to Judge Louis Stanton, who said on Thursday that there was “no bright-line rule” for the attorneys’ proposed disagreement. Variety reports that Sheeran was accused of stealing a chord pattern and a harmonic rhythm from Gaye’s song in the first instance. Sheeran’s accusers have abruptly modified their claims in light of his legal representation and now agree that the song’s components are “commonplace and unprotectable.” They assert, however, that the mix of their elements is what makes them distinctively Gaye’s and, as a result, why copyright law protects them.
In the past, Sheeran has dealt with similar issues, such as those regarding “Photograph” (which was resolved amicably), “The Rest of Our Life,” (which was dismissed at Sheeran’s request), and most recently, a lawsuit alleging that he had plagiarised “Shape of You,” which Sheeran ultimately won. In a video statement released soon after the decision, the artist said that these lawsuits were “very harmful to the songwriting profession” and added, “While we’re happy with the outcome, 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 basis to the claim.”