The shape of sue! Sheeran takes musician to court over royalties row

IT was revealed last week that Ed Sheeran was being sued for $100million for allegedly ‘ripping off ’ parts of Marvin Gaye’s classic Let’s Get It On for his hit Thinking Out Loud.

Now reports suggest that the flamehaired singer has filed a lawsuit himself – this time against musician Sam Chokri after Ed had his royalties suspended for his song The Shape Of You when Sam claimed the song ‘was a copy’ of his 2015 track Oh Why.

Sheeran’s lawyers submitted a writ to the High Court in London on Saturday against Chokri, 25, and songwriter Ross O’Donoghue for ‘damaging [Sheeran] reputationally’ and hitting his ‘revenue streams’.

Sheeran is said to have received no money for his 2017 hit – which is said to have amassed £20million so far – ever since May 10 after the Performing Rights Society, which collects and distributes royalties, put the song ‘into suspense’.

The PRS makes decisions on royalty payouts and had blocked him from receiving royalties upon considering an expert report submitted by Chokri and O’Donoghue.

Now Sheeran’s lawyers are believed to be seeking confirmation from the court he did not copy Chokri’s song. They also want compensation.

The singer’s lawsuit comes after legal documents filed in New York on Thursday claimed the Grammy-winning musician’s 2014 track Thinking Out Loud had been copied.

In the report by The Sun, the ‘melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping’ of Gaye’s 1973 song were said to be used in Sheeran’s track.

The claim of the track being a ‘carbon copy’ has been brought by a company called Structured Asset Sales, which owns part of the copyright of Let’s Get It On. SAS bought a third of the copyright after the death in 2003 of Ed Townsend, who penned the track with Gaye.

Sheeran, pictured, was previously hit with a copyright suit in 2016 by Townsend’s family, who accused the star of ‘stealing’ musical elements for Thinking Out Loud.

Thinking Out Loud has turned into a wedding favourite with more than a billion plays on YouTube and the first song to hit 500million streams on Spotify.

The song features on his album X, which has sold more than 15million copies, and it was also nominated for a Grammy for Song Of The Year in 2015.

Gaye was shot dead by his father in 1984 at the age of 44. Earlier this year, Gaye’s family were awarded $5.3million after a US court said Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ 2013 Blurred Lines song copied the late soul singer’s Got to Give it Up.

Representatives for Ed Sheeran have been contacted for comment.