Ed Sheeran in court in New York for Marvin Gaye copyright lawsuit

Ed Sheeran arrives at a New York courthouse to defend the originality of his song Thinking Out Loud from claims by the family of Gaye’s co-writer on Let’s Get It On.

Ed Sheeran will today, April 25, appear in court to defend his intellectual property (IP) against the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song Let’s Get It On with Marvin Gaye. The Manhattan Federal Court will host the proceedings, expected to last around 2 weeks.

As the Daily Loud reported on Twitter: ” Ed Sheeran in NYC court for federal copyright trial over Marvin Gaye classic Let’s Get it On”.

Ed Sheeran in NYC court for federal copyright trial over Marvin Gaye classic "Let’s Get it On" pic.twitter.com/nlGT3VHWGz

— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) April 25, 2023

Sheeran is accused of using parts of the classic Marvin Gaye track Let’s Get It On in his Grammy-winning Song of the Year 2016, Thinking Out Loud. The Townsend family are claiming that they are owed a share of the wealth from the song.

Despite the Townsends claiming that the similarities can be proven by groups such as Boyz II Men and Sheeran himself performing mash-ups of the 2 tracks, Sheeran and his team will argue that any similarities lie in the chord progression used, a part of music that can’t be copyrighted.

As Eat, Drink, and Love a Korean commented on Twitter:” What a waste of time and money. There are only so many chord progressions available that work in a contemporary song structure. Heck, just check out all of these songs that all use the exact same sequence”. 

What a waste of time and money. There are only so many chord progressions available that work in a contemporary song structure. Heck, just check out all of these songs that all use the exact same sequence:https://t.co/GGXb0kzf8F

— Eat, Drink, and Love a Korean (@eatdrinklovekrn) April 24, 2023

He went on to post a video of the brilliant Axis Of Awesome’s 4-Chord Song, which shows that many classic songs share very similar chord progressions (although this is not actually the one used by Gaye and Sheeran). 

Ed Sheeran is no stranger to these sorts of claims, which he has described as baseless. He had to defend his 2017 hit Shape Of You from a similar claim regarding a track by Sami Switch called Oh Why.

It could be argued that in the case of Switch, this is just a way for minor artists to try to make big money – by finding fleeting similarities in their own tracks and trying to claim royalties from a bigger hit.

Sheeran claimed on social media that this behaviour is damaging to the music industry and will fight once again to clear his name.