Ed Sheeran Wins Another “Think Aloud” Copyright Case

Less than two weeks after a federal jury ruled that Ed SheeranThe 2014 single “Thinking Out Loud” did not plagiarize element of “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye, the English musician defeated a second lawsuit involving two songs. According to court documents obtained by Pitchfork, a New York federal judge, Louis L. Stanton, Were dismissed a COMPLAINT was originally filed against Sheeran and others in 2018 by Structured Asset Sales, LLC (SAS), whose CEO, David Pullman, owns one-third of the copyright in Ed Townsend’s catalog. Townsend co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Marvin Gaye, making Pullman the partial owner of its copyright. Townsend’s family is behind another major lawsuit against Sheeran.

In the complaint, viewed by Pitchfork, SAS alleges that “Thinking Out Loud” specifically infringes the copyright of the sheet music for “Let’s Get It On.” The lawsuit also outlines several points of alleged plagiarism, including comparisons to songs’ chord progressions, time signatures, bass lines, and more. At one point, SAS stated that Sheeran “experienced a sharp and sudden rise as an international music star in less than eighteen (18) months as a direct result of the commercial success of the release of “‘Thinking Out Loud.'”

Judge Stanton reached a similar conclusion to the jury that gave Sheeran his trial win earlier this month, dismissing the case with prejudice. “It is an indisputable fact that the chord progressions and harmonic rhythms of ‘Let’s Get It On’ are so common, both alone and in combination, that to protect their combination would give ‘Let’s Get It On ‘ an unauthorized monopoly on a basic musical. building block,” Stanton written in the filing.

Stanton added that the chord progression for “Let’s Get It On” was used “at least twenty-nine times” before Gaye and Townsend wrote the hit, and appeared on “another twenty-three songs” before “Thinking Out Loud” emerged.

“There is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether the defendants violated the protected elements of ‘Let’s Get It On,'” Stanton wrote. “The answer is that they don’t.”

as The Guardian says, Sheeran faces another pending lawsuit from SAS comparing the finished recordings of “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On.”