In a copyright infringement lawsuit, Ed Sheeran was found not liable.
A federal jury in Manhattan ruled on Thursday that Sheeran did not plagiarize Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 single “Thinking Out Loud.” After just under three hours of deliberation, it reached a unanimous decision, concluding that Sheeran wrote his song independently.
The two-week trial was the result of a 2017 lawsuit filed by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the Gaye classic. It claimed that Sheeran’s Grammy-winning hit shares “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” with Gaye’s 1973 hit.
“I’m obviously very pleased with the outcome of the case, and it appears that I won’t have to retire from my day job after all,” Sheeran said outside the courthouse. “At the same time, I’m extremely frustrated that such baseless claims are allowed to go to court at all.”
When the verdict was read, Sheeran stood up and hugged his lawyers before walking over to Kathryn Griffin Townsend, Townsend’s daughter, and hugging her. According to The New York Times, the two had a brief conversation.
Townsend stated that she respected the decision of the jury and was defending her father’s legacy. “I stood up for my father’s intellectual properties,” she explained. “I was going up against an army.”
She also claimed that Sheeran had invited her to one of his tour dates. “If we had just been able to talk,” she explained, “we wouldn’t be here today.”
During the trial, video footage showed Sheeran combining the two songs during his Zurich concert, which Townsend’s lawyer Ben Crump called a “confession” that he was infringing on copyrights.
“If I’d done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be an idiot to stand on stage in front of 20,000 people [and do that],” Sheeran responded to the allegations. “I believe that most pop songs are constructed from building blocks that have been freely available for hundreds of years.”
Sheeran threatened to quit music if found liable during his testimony earlier this week.
“If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping,” he said, referring to the emotional toll the trial has taken on him. “I find it extremely insulting to devote my entire life to being a performer and songwriter only to have it belittled.”
Sheeran’s new album, Subtract, will be released on Friday.
