Less than two weeks after Ed Sheeran won his 'Thinking Out Loud' lawsuit, a judge has dismissed a second lawsuit against the singer.
Ed Sheeran has won another lawsuit over alleged similarities between his hit 'Thinking Out Loud' and Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On'.
Less than two weeks after a jury ruled that Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" is not a copy of "Let's Get It On," a federal judge has dismissed a second copyright lawsuit accusing the singer of copying the same Marvin song Gaye.
Although U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton had previously ruled that Ed Sheeran should go to a jury trial in the second lawsuit, he reversed the ruling and on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales.
Louis Stanton, who presided over the 'Thinking Out Loud' trial in Manhattan federal court last month, ruled that the parts of 'Let's Get It On' that Ed Sheeran was accused of copying were too common to fall foul of copyright laws.
"It is an undisputed fact that the chord progression and tempo in 'Let's Get It On' are so common, individually and in combination, that protecting their combination would give 'Let's Get It On' an impermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block,” Judge Stanton wrote in his ruling.
The first trial comes six years after the estate of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote 'Let's Get It On' with Marvin Gaye, filed a lawsuit against Ed Sheeran, claiming that 'Thinking Out Loud' bears 'striking similarities' to the 1973 song that constitute copyright infringement.
Although Structured Asset Sales' lawsuit against Ed Sheeran was dismissed, the company, which is run by investor David Pullman and owns part of Ed Townsend's interest in Let's Get It On, has filed a third, pending, lawsuit against Ed Sheeran based on her rights to Marvin Gaye's recording.
While Tuesday's ruling is a major victory for Ed Sheeran, it's not the end of the legal battle over "Thinking Out Loud." Both the verdict handed down earlier this month and the new decision are subject to an appeal, which could take years.
And the third lawsuit, brought by Structured Asset Sales, is based on different copyrights of Marvin Gaye's famous recording version of the song.
In an interview with Billboard, David Pullman confirmed that his company will appeal Tuesday's decision on multiple grounds and stressed that it will continue to work on the third lawsuit, which has been frozen while the other cases are pending.
"In the new lawsuit, before a different judge, we have the recording in this case," he said.
“Throughout all these years of court proceedings, the only thing the defendants have been terrified of is the recording. They don't want to play it to the jury, because then they would see the similarities," he added.
