Ed Sheeran Lawsuit: Thinking Out Loud, Shape of You, Photograph

Ed Sheeran has faced more copyright infringement claims than almost any other current pop songwriter, and the Ed Sheeran lawsuits over “Thinking Out Loud,” “Shape of You,” “Photograph,” and “The Rest of Our Life” have all now been resolved in his favor or settled, with a single related case still pending. He won the two that reached trial, settled two others on undisclosed terms, and in June 2025 saw the U.S. Supreme Court decline to revive the final appeal in the longest-running fight.¹

“Thinking Out Loud” vs. “Let’s Get It On”

Two separate lawsuits accused Sheeran’s 2014 ballad, co-written with Amy Wadge, of copying Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend’s 1973 classic. Both came from parties tied to Townsend’s copyright interest, which was split among his three children after his death in 2003.²

The Jury Trial: Griffin v. Sheeran

Kathryn Griffin Townsend and other co-owners of the “Let’s Get It On” copyright sued in the Southern District of New York in July 2017, alleging striking similarities in melody, harmony, and rhythm.³ The plaintiffs’ strongest exhibit was concert footage from Zurich in which Sheeran blended the two songs into a live mashup. Their attorney, Ben Crump, called the video a “confession” and told the jury, “Not only do we have a smoking gun, but we have bullets for that smoking gun.”⁴

Sheeran picked up a guitar on the witness stand to show how he routinely stitches together songs with shared chord progressions during live shows, arguing the mashup said nothing about how “Thinking Out Loud” was written.⁵ He testified that the song was written at his home in England with Amy Wadge, inspired by his grandparents’ love story.⁶ On May 4, 2023, after about three hours of deliberation, the Manhattan jury returned a verdict of no infringement.⁷ The defense had argued that the shared chord progression is a standard pop building block and that Sheeran created the song independently.⁸

The Investment Firm’s Parallel Case

Structured Asset Sales (SAS), a California company founded by David Pullman that buys and securitizes music royalties, owned a one-third slice of Ed Townsend’s copyright interest, or roughly one-ninth of the total royalty stream.⁹¹⁰ It filed its own suit in 2018 before Judge Louis L. Stanton.

Twelve days after the jury verdict, on May 16, 2023, Judge Stanton granted summary judgment for Sheeran and dismissed the SAS complaint with prejudice. The combination of a four-chord progression and harmonic rhythm at issue was “too commonplace to merit copyright protection,” he wrote, noting it appeared in at least 29 songs predating “Let’s Get It On.” Protecting it would give the plaintiffs “an impermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block.”¹¹

The Second Circuit affirmed on November 1, 2024. Because “Let’s Get It On” was registered under the 1909 Copyright Act, protection extended only to what was in the deposit copy: the skeletal sheet music filed in 1973. Elements audible only on the recording, such as guitar parts, drum patterns, and bass line, fell outside the copyright.¹² The panel added that “no reasonable jury could find that the two songs, taken as a whole, are substantially similar in light of their dissimilar melodies and lyrics.”¹⁰ In June 2025 the Supreme Court denied SAS’s petition, closing that case.¹³

The One Claim Still Open

SAS filed a second action in June 2020 based on a new copyright registration that used the actual audio recording of “Let’s Get It On” as the deposit copy instead of the 1973 sheet music.¹⁴ It remains active before Judge Ronnie Abrams. On December 9, 2025, she ruled that Sheeran can challenge the validity of the 2020 registration before SAS amends its complaint to rely on it, and his lawyers have argued the registration should be invalidated because SAS was not the author, copyright holder, or authorized agent when it filed.¹⁵ The most recent docket activity is from March 2026.

“Shape of You” vs. “Oh Why”

British artist Sami Chokri and co-writer Ross O’Donoghue alleged in 2017 that the “Oh I” hook in Sheeran’s global hit was lifted from the chorus of their 2015 track “Oh Why.” After the Performing Rights Society froze roughly 10% of the song’s royalties (about £500,000 a year), Sheeran and his co-writers John McDaid and Steven McCutcheon filed in the UK High Court for a declaration of non-infringement. Chokri and O’Donoghue counterclaimed.¹⁶

After an 11-day trial, Mr. Justice Zacaroli ruled on April 6, 2022, that Sheeran had “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied “Oh Why.”¹⁷ Both songs drew on the rising minor pentatonic scale, and studio recordings of the October 2016 writing session showed the “Oh I” phrase evolving in real time. The claim that Sheeran had ever heard “Oh Why” rested on a “speculative foundation,” and the judge concluded that the counterclaimants’ bid to be named co-writers “was a tactic designed to extract a settlement.”¹⁶ Chokri and O’Donoghue were later ordered to pay an interim £916,200 toward Sheeran’s legal fees.¹⁸

A separate matter around “Shape of You” produced no lawsuit at all. The TLC “No Scrubs” writers Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, and producer Kevin Briggs were quietly added to the song’s credits in early 2017 after fans flagged melodic similarities, a change confirmed through the ASCAP database.¹⁹

“Photograph” — Settled in 2017

In June 2016, songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard sued in California federal court, alleging that “Photograph” was a “note-for-note” copy of their song “Amazing,” recorded by X-Factor winner Matt Cardle in 2012. The complaint claimed 39 identical notes across the two choruses and sought $20 million in damages.²⁰²¹²²

“The Rest of Our Life” — Settled in 2018

Australian songwriters Sean Carey and Beau Golden sued in New York federal court in January 2018, alleging that the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill duet, co-written by Sheeran with Amy Wadge, Johnny McDaid, and Steve Mac, was a “verbatim, note-for-note” copy of their 2014 song “When I Found You,” performed by Jasmine Rae. They sought at least $5 million and a permanent injunction.²³ Sheeran denied the allegations and moved to dismiss, calling the song “originally and independently created.”²⁴ In November 2018, the parties reached a settlement in principle with dismissal to follow within 30 days. Terms were not disclosed.²⁵

What These Rulings Changed

Most of the cases against Sheeran followed the 2015 “Blurred Lines” verdict, in which a jury found Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke liable for copying the feel of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” and awarded the Gaye estate $7.4 million.²⁶ Legal commentators saw that verdict as extending protection to a song’s overall groove and opening the door to a wave of claims against pop and R&B artists.²²

The Sheeran rulings ran the other direction. The Second Circuit held in the SAS appeal that basic elements like notes, rhythms, and common chord progressions are generally not copyrightable, warning that “overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.”¹⁰ Judge Stanton’s district-court opinion added that any “protectable mosaic” of unprotectable elements requires “a number of them: not one or two.”¹¹

How Sheeran Has Responded

Sheeran testified at the 2023 trial that if he lost, “I’m done — I’m stopping.”²⁷ He said the trial caused him to miss his grandmother’s funeral in Ireland and, after the verdict, called the broader pattern of claims “dangerous” for creative freedom.²⁸ In a joint statement after the “Shape of You” ruling, he and his co-writers described the toll on their mental health, creativity, and finances as “immense.”¹⁶ He has called himself “not and never” a “piggy bank for anyone to shake.”²⁹

After the “Photograph” settlement and the “Shape of You” fight, Sheeran started filming every writing session. He told the BBC in 2022 that the tapes have already been used to answer new claims: “We’ve had claims coming through on the songs and we go, ‘Well here’s the footage and you watch. You’ll see there’s nothing there.'”³⁰ Collaborators, he said, now feel “scared to touch the piano” for fear of accidentally echoing someone else’s melody.³¹

1
Reuters. US Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Revive Copyright Suit Over Ed Sheeran Hit Thinking Out Loud
2
George Washington University Law School. Structured Asset Sales v. Sheeran Complaint
3
NPR. Ed Sheeran Marvin Gaye Townsend Lets Get It On Copyright
4
New York Post. No Smoking Gun in Marvin Gaye Case Ed Sheerans Lawyer
5
BBC News. Ed Sheeran Plays Guitar at Copyright Trial
6
PBS NewsHour. Jury Finds Ed Sheeran Didnt Steal From Marvin Gaye Classic
7
Harvard Law School. Did Ed Sheeran Copy Marvin Gayes Lets Get It On
8
ABC News. Jury Reaches Verdict Ed Sheeran Copyright Infringement Case
9
Authors Alliance. Bonds Beats and Lawsuits How Ed Sheeran Won
10
Justia. Structured Asset Sales LLC v. Sheeran, No. 23-905
11
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Structured Asset Sales LLC v. Sheeran, 18 Civ. 5839, Opinion and Order
12
New York Times. Ed Sheeran Lets Get It On Copyright Appeal
13
CNN. Ed Sheeran Marvin Gaye Supreme Court
14
CourtListener. Structured Asset Sales LLC v. Sheeran, 1:20-cv-04329
15
George Washington University Law School. Griffin v. Sheeran et al.
16
BBC News. Ed Sheeran Wins Copyright Lawsuit Shape of You
17
UK Judiciary. Sheeran v. Chokri, [2022] EWHC 827 (Ch)
18
The Guardian. Ed Sheeran and Co-Writers Awarded 900000 in Costs Over Copyright Case
19
BBC News. TLC No Scrubs Writers Added to Shape of You Credits
20
CBS News. Ed Sheeran Settles Copyright Lawsuit Photograph Songwriters Matt Cardle Amazing
21
BBC News. Ed Sheeran Photograph Copyright Case Settled
22
WIPO Magazine. In the Courts Ed Sheeran Succeeds in Music Copyright Infringement Case but Its Not Over Yet
23
Variety. Tim McGraw Faith Hill Song Co-Written by Ed Sheeran Hit With Lawsuit
24
The Boot. Ed Sheeran the Rest of Our Life Lawsuit Asks for Dismissal
25
Sydney Morning Herald. Australian Songwriters Settle Copyright Suit With Ed Sheeran
26
Ethics Unwrapped, University of Texas at Austin. Blurred Lines Copyright
27
Los Angeles Times. Ed Sheeran Quit Music if Loses Marvin Gaye Copyright Trial
28
ABC News. Ed Sheeran Speaks Out After Winning Thinking Out Loud
29
NPR. Ed Sheeran Wins Copyright Lawsuit Shape of You
30
BBC News. Ed Sheeran Films Every Writing Session Following Court Battle
31
Deadline. Ed Sheeran Creative Cost Shape of You Plagiarism Lawsuit Films Songwriting Sessions