American Intellectual Property Law Association | June 23, 2023
Read the PublicationEd Sheeran recently returned to court after being pulled into a third copyright lawsuit.[1] Already suffering through suits regarding his songs “Shape of You” and “Photograph,”[2] Sheeran approaches this fresh suit (comparing his hit “Thinking Out Loud” to Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”) with exasperation.[3] The pop song genre, Sheeran claims, use only the same three or four chords arguing that he only used the musical building blocks that should be available to all artists.[4] Inevitably, there will be some overlap.