Ed Sheeran's Second Copyright Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Decides Against Jury Trial: Report
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U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton reportedly ruled that the elements allegedly lifted from "Let's Get It On" for "Thinking Out Loud" were too common to be protected under copyright law
Take Ed Sheeran into your loving arms, because he's in the clear after another copyright lawsuit over his 2014 single "Thinking Out Loud" was reportedly dismissed.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that a second copyright case brought onto the British singer-songwriter by Structured Asset Sales LLC over alleged similarities between "Thinking Out Loud" and Marvin Gaye's classic "Let's Get It On" was thrown out in Manhattan federal court.
Per the outlet, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton ruled that the elements allegedly lifted from "Let's Get It On" for "Thinking Out Loud" were too common to be protected under copyright law. The same judge presided over the jury trial where Sheeran, 32, was found not liable for alleged copyright infringement on Gaye's 1973 song earlier this month.
A third lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales, which purchased a third of the shares of the song from the family of "Let's Get It On" co-writer Ed Townsend in 2018, concerning the rights to Gaye's recording is still pending. Reuters noted that if the third case goes to trial, jurors will be shown Gaye's recording rather than the song's sheet music, which was presented as an AI audio version in the previous jury trial.
In the lawsuit won by Sheeran earlier this month, seven jurors reached a unanimous verdict after about three hours of deliberation in a New York City courtroom following a trial that lasted more than a week.
"I feel like the truth was heard and the truth was believed," the Grammy winner told PEOPLE exclusively in the courthouse following the decision. "It's nice that we can both move on with our lives now — it's sad that it had to come to this."
After the verdict was read, the musician hugged his legal team and co-writer Amy Wadge, then approached plaintiff Kathryn Griffin Townsend — daughter of the "Let's Get It On" co-writer — and the two smiled and talked before exchanging hugs. As he exited the courtroom, Sheeran embraced and kissed wife Cherry Seaborn, who was in attendance.
At one point during the trial, Sheeran was asked what he would do if the court finds "Thinking Out Loud" to be too similar to "Let's Get It On."
"If that happens, I'm done, I'm stopping," Sheeran said.
In an interview with PEOPLE following the verdict, Wadge said she felt similarly. "Truthfully, I know Ed had said what he said about quitting music. I had said it myself, just how awful it was to feel that we all want to create music that touches the world and that the risk of that [is] if I was to create of pieces of work that maybe did the same as 'Thinking Out Loud,' I could expect this to happen again," she said at the time.
After the trial's conclusion, she spoke about feeling "relieved," "very emotional" and ready to move on with her career: "You're told 'Just tell the truth,' and that's what we did, and we've got the conclusion that we could have only hoped for."
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