Ed Sheeran Asks Supreme Court to Turn Down ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Copyright Appeal

The British pop star Ed Sheeran wants the US Supreme Court to reject the copyright claims about his hit song. On May 16, his team filed papers fighting accusations that his single "Thinking Out Loud" copied Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."

The fight started again when Structured Asset Sales (SAS), a company that owns a small part of "Let's Get It On," filed an appeal in March after losing last year. The Second Circuit appeals court knocked down their case last November, as the judges concluded no one could claim rights to such a basic four-chord pattern.

At the heart of this mess sits an old rule about music copyright. Under the 1909 Copyright Act, the law says that for songs made before 1978, only what's written on paper counts, not the sound recordings. SAS thinks that's wrong and wants it changed.

They pushed back with the argument that this could affect thousands of classic songs. In their legal brief, the lawyers stated that accepting the SAS interpretation of the law would invite speculation “decades after the fact (and, in many cases, such as this one, long after the death of the composer in question) regarding the composer's supposed intentions, the scope of the composer's work and what represents the ‘best edition' of the composer's work."

The legal battle has dragged on for seven long years. If it sounds familiar, that's because in 2023, Sheeran won a different case about the same songs when Ed Townsend's family sued him.

The odds don't look good for SAS. Each year, about 7,000 cases reach the Supreme Court's desk, and the justices pick only about 140 to hear. Now they must choose to either take up this music fight or let the lower court's decision stand.