Ed Sheeran has come out victorious again in a long-standing copyright dispute over his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.” On Friday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a previous ruling that Sheeran’s song did not unlawfully copy Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On.” This decision closes a legal chapter that began in 2018 when Structured Asset Sales, which owns a portion of the rights to the Gaye song, initially filed the lawsuit against Sheeran, Warner Music, and Sony Music Publishing.
The court’s decision supports U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton’s ruling, which found that the musical elements allegedly copied by Sheeran were too generic to warrant copyright protection. Structured Asset Sales, owned by investment banker David Pullman, argued that key aspects of “Let’s Get It On” were present in “Thinking Out Loud.” However, the court disagreed, noting that granting copyright protection for these musical elements could limit creative freedom for future artists.
Structured Asset Sales also argued that the judge should have reviewed Gaye’s original recording rather than focusing solely on the song’s sheet music. However, the appeals court rejected this argument, stating that the sheet music filed with the U.S. Copyright Office was the relevant material for the case.
In May 2023, Sheeran defeated a similar lawsuit from the heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer, in a highly publicized jury trial. After that verdict, Judge Stanton dismissed Structured Asset Sales’ case, which had been pending since 2018. Pullman’s company has since filed a separate lawsuit against Sheeran based on its rights in the actual recording of “Let’s Get It On,” though that case is currently paused.
Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” co-written with Amy Wadge, remains one of his most iconic tracks, winning Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance in 2016. The song spent 58 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2, and received praise from legends like Stevie Wonder, who called it a “great song” while presenting Sheeran with his Grammy.
