Ed Sheeran Wins Second Lawsuit Against Marvin Gaye 'Lets Get It On' By Structured Assets Sales

Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran is enjoying victory once again after the second copyright case against his song "Thinking Out Loud" was dismissed by the same judge that sided with him on the first one.

Not more than a few weeks ago, Sheeran triumphantly won his high-profile copyright infringement case against Ed Townsend's heirs who accused him of ripping off the melody of the 1973 hit song "Let's Get It On" written by Townsend and Marvin Gaye.

Ed Sheeran New Lawsuit

To put it simply, another lawsuit was filed by Structured Assets Sales, owned by "Bowie Bonds" creator David Pullman, who also partly owns a part of Townsend's rights from "Let's Get It On."

The accusations were the same as the first one that Townsend's already lost. They filed the same complaint after Townsend did theirs in 2016. (via Reuters)

Back then, Judge Louis Stanton, the presiding judge on the Sheeran v Townsend lawsuit, ruled that he will have to face a jury trial for this second lawsuit. But in a stunning turn of events, Stanton reversed his ruling and stood by his statements after Sheeran's win.

"It is an unassailable reality that the chord progression and harmonic rhythm in 'Let's Get It On' are so commonplace, in isolation and in combination, that to protect their combination would give 'Let's Get It On' an impermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block," he said in a statement.

Sheeran proved to the court that "Thinking Out Loud's" chord progression which Townsend claims to be from "Let's Get It On" was also found in several songs throughout music history. The "Photograph" singer even had to bust out a guitar and play the chord from various songs.

Meanwhile, Ilene Farkas, Sheeran's attorney, deemed the legal victory an "important one" not only for the Grammy-winning hitmaker but also for "all songwriters and consumers of music."

Ed Sheeran Third 'Thinking Out Loud' Lawsuit?

However, this might not be the last of Pullman. According to Reuters, Structured Asset Sales filed another lawsuit against the singer now based on its rights to Gaye's recording (the first one from Townsend).

The company told the publication that the jury on this third case, should it enter a trial, will hear the recording of the song and not the "computerized rendition of the song's sheet music" from the first trial.

"Their biggest fear, in terms of everything they've filed, has been to prevent the sound recording from coming in," Pullman told the outlet.

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