Ed Sheeran didn’t violate copyright law when he used chords from a Marvin Gaye classic in his hit song “Thinking Out Loud,” a Manhattan Federal Court jury ruled Thursday.
Sheeran was accused of stealing melodies from Marvin Gaye’s 1973 soul hit “Let’s Get It On” by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Gaye.
Evidence in the case included video of Sheeran’s performance of his song “Thinking Out Loud” at a concert in Zurich in 2014. During that performance, Sheeran segued into some of Gaye’s chords.
Sheeran and his lawyers argued that any similarities between “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” are based on fundamental musical “building blocks” that are ineligible for copyright protection.
But the Zurich video showed “he knew exactly what he was doing when he played those two songs together,” said Keisha Rice, a lawyer for Townsend’s heirs, said in her closing statement to the jury.