Ed Sheeran has won his copyright infringement trial, in which he fought allegations that the British singer cribbed from Marvin Gaye’s 1973 song Let’s Get It On for his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud, which was awarded the Grammy for song of the year in 2016.
The suit, originally filed in 2017, was brought by the descendants of Gaye’s co-writer, Ed Townsend. The three plaintiffs allege that Sheeran and co-writer Amy Wadge stole “the heart” of the soul classic by using “melodic, harmonic and rhythmic compositions” that are “substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition” of the song. (Gaye died in 1984; Townsend died in 2003.)
