Ed Sheeran copyright trial: Everything you need to know about Marvin Gaye plagiarism case

Singer in court this week to defend himself over claims he stole from the most famous R&B anthem of all time

Ed Sheeran will appear in a New York court this week, where he will defend himself against accusations that elements of one of his best-known tracks were stolen from Marvin Gaye’s 1973 slow jam classic “Let’s Get It On”.

The British artist, 32, has been sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, the songwriter who composed the anthem with Gaye. They have alleged that Sheeran’s 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” copied harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements from “Let’s Get It On” without permission.

“Thinking Out Loud” is one of Sheeran’s most popular tracks – when it was released, it reached number one in the charts in 11 countries. It has been played more than a billion times on YouTube and so its advertising revenue is huge.

Jury selection for the trial, delayed by the pandemic, began on Monday 24 April and Sheeran is expected to testify this week. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2017 and it has taken six years to reach Manhatten federal court.

In their lawsuit, lawyers representing Townsend’s heirs referenced a magazine article about Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringing the copyright of the Gaye song “Got to Give It Up” in the stars’ 2013 single “Blurred Lines”. The article, published in Spin, stated that “Blurred Lines” was “not nearly as egregious a steal as… Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’”, which it calld “an incredibly obvious successor” to Gaye’s track.

Sheeran denies plagiarising “Let’s Get It On”. His lawyers have argued that when he and co-writer Amy Wadge composed the song in February 2014, at Sheeran’s Suffolk home, they used some of the same constructions found in many other songs.

“The two songs share versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters,” they said in a court filing.

Ed Sheeran (Getty Images for The Rock and Ro)

Musicologist Lawrence Ferrara, hired by Sheeran’s team, pointed to at least 13 tracks recorded before “Let’s Get It On” that used the same chord progression.

In April last year, Sheeran won another copyright lawsuit after he was accused of plagiarising his song “Shape of You” from Sami Chokri’s 2015 track “Oh Why”.