Ed Sheeran will have to face 'Thinking Out Loud' plagiarism claim, rules US District Judge

On March 30, 2021, a US judge rejected Ed Sheeran's bid to dismiss one out of the three lawsuits against him, alleging him of plagiarising a Marvin Gaye song for his hit Thinking Out Loud. For the unversed, the Shape Of You hitmaker has been accused of lifting his 2014 song from Marvin Gaye's cult classic, Let's Get In On, which released back in 1973. On Tuesday, Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan ruled that Sheeran cannot skip the new Let's Get It On copyright suit by Structured Asset Sales LLC. 

Ed Sheeran's plagiarism claim by Structured Asset Sales LLC can't be skipped

In her statement, US District Judge Ronnie Abrams set the record straight by saying Structured Asset Sales LLC, which owns one-third of Marvin Gaye's song Let's Get In On co-writer Ed Townsend's estate, has the right to sue Ed Sheeran, Sony Music Publishing as well as other defendants over its copyright registration in April 2020 for a studio recording of the iconic song. Abrams wrote that the registration "allows the court to reasonably infer that plaintiff has ownership of the 2020 copyright" and can work on a copyright lawsuit against the defendants. 

However, the judge put the case on hold as a result of "significant overlap" with the separate lawsuit filed by the plaintiff against Sheeran over a 1973 copyright claim based on sheet music for Let's Get In On song. It was filed with the US Copyright Office as a "deposit copy". Structured Asset Sales, which is owned by David Pullman, has sought more than a whopping $100 million as compensation for the damages. 

No statements by either Sheeran or Sony Music Publishing's lawyers about the same have been released as of yet. Talking about both the songs, while Thinking Out Loud bagged the second spot on the Billboard Hot 100 back in February 2015, Gaye's Let's Get It On song had hit the number 1 spot back in September 1973. Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran recently made headlines after he and his wife Cherry Seaborn were spotted taking a stroll in the rain with their seven-month-old daughter Lyra Antarctica in Australia's Sorrento town

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Promo Image Source: Ed Sheeran Instagram