Take Ed Sheeran into your loving arms, as he was exonerated after another copyright lawsuit for his 2014 single “Thinking Out Loud” was reportedly dismissed.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported to the British singer-songwriter that a second copyright lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales LLC was dismissed in Manhattan federal court over the similarities between “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get It On.”
According to the newspaper, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton ruled that items allegedly removed for “Thinking Out Loud” from “Let’s Get It On” were too common to be protected under copyright law. The same judge presided over the jury trial in which 32-year-old Sheeran was found not liable for alleged copyright infringement to Gaye’s 1973 song earlier this month.
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Structured Asset Sales, which purchased a third of the song from the family of “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Townsend in 2018, is still pending its third lawsuit over Gaye’s recording rights. Reuters noted that if the third case goes to court, jurors will be shown a recording of Gaye instead of the song’s sheet music, which was presented as an artificial intelligence audio version at the previous jury trial.
In Sheeran’s case, which he won earlier this month, seven jurors reached a unanimous decision after nearly three hours of debate in a New York City courtroom after more than a week of hearing.
“I feel like the truth is heard and the truth is believed,” the Grammy-winning actress told PEOPLE exclusively at the courthouse after the verdict. “It’s nice that we can both get on with our lives now – it’s sad that things have gotten to this point.”
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After the verdict was read, the musician hugged his legal team and co-writer Amy Wadge, then approached plaintiff Kathryn Griffin Townsend, the daughter of the “Let’s Get It On” co-writer, and the two smiled and talked before hugging each other. Leaving the courtroom, Sheeran embraced and kissed his wife, Cherry Seaborn, who was present.
At one point in the trial, Sheeran was asked what he would do if the court made “Thinking Aloud” too similar to “Let’s Get Started”.
“If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping,” Sheeran said.
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In an interview with PEOPLE after the decision, Wadge said he felt the same way. “Honestly, I know what Ed said about quitting music. I’ve said that too, how terrible it is to feel that we all want to create music that touches the world and that there is a risk.” [is] Maybe if I were to create threads that do the same thing as ‘Thinking Aloud’, I might expect that to happen again,” he said.
After the trial ended, she said she felt “relaxed”, “very emotional” and was ready to continue her career.