Back in May 2023, Ed Sheeran vowed to be “done” with music if he were found guilty in his Marvin Gaye estate plagiarism lawsuit.
Well, exactly a year later, fans of the “Plastic Bag” singer were relived when he was found not liable in the matter. But the intellectual property battle between Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and Ed’s “Thinking Out Loud” wasn’t over yet.
However, according to Billboard, Ed can but it all behind him now. The outlet claims that a panel also ruled in Ed Sheeran’s favor in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Yesterday (November 1), the appeals court supposedly rejected Structured Asset Sales, a minority stake owner of Gaye’s song, infringement lawsuit against Ed. In the decision written by the judges panel, they wrote: “The four-chord progression at issue—ubiquitous in pop music—even coupled with a syncopated harmonic rhythm, is too well-explored to meet the originality threshold that copyright law demands. Overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.”
The court’s decision allegedly also called out the lack of similarities in other areas, writing: “Neither the melody nor the lyrics of ‘Thinking Out’ Loud bears any resemblance to those in ‘Let’s Get It On.’ Undeniable and obvious differences exist between them.”
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