Sheeran prevails in another copyright suit

Thinking out loud, it seems Ed Sheeran is enjoying a legal victory lap.

Weeks after a New York jury found he did not plagiarize Mar vin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” Sheeran was cleared of a similar lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales.

In 2018, SAS alleged Sheeran’s 2014 song ‘”Thinking Out Loud” lifted parts from Gaye’s 1973 hit. SAS “purchased one-third of the copyright” to Gaye’s song and sought $100 million in damages, according to Pitchfork.

In legal documents filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton dismissed the lawsuit finding Sheeran and “Thinking Out Loud” co-writer Amy Wadge did not plagiarize parts of Gaye’s song.

“It is an unassailable reality that the chord progression and harmonic rhythm in ‘Let’s Get It On’ are so commonplace, in isolation and in combination,

that to protect their combination would give ‘Let’s Get It On’ an impermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block,” the legal document said.

If there’s a sense of deja vu around Tuesday’s decision, it’s most likely because the Grammy-winner’s legal victory came just weeks after he won a similar lawsuit earlier this month.

Following a weeklong trial, a New York jury sided with the hit-maker in the lawsuit brought on Gaye collaborator Ed Townsend’s family in 2016.

In a statement outside of the New York courthouse, Sheeran said he was “obviously very happy” with the result.

A day after winning the lawsuit, Sheeran treated New York fans to an impromptu concert in Soho. Outside his American Express pop-up store, Sheeran climbed to the top of a car with a guitar in tow and performed his new song “Boat” for a swarm of fans.