The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a copyright suit against pop star Ed Sheeran filed by a company that alleged his smash single “Thinking Out Loud” copied the classic Marvin Gaye song “Let’s Get It On.”
Sheeran has been fighting – and successfully defending against – different iterations of the lawsuit for years. In a related case, a jury in 2023 concluded that Sheeran’s number, which won a Grammy in 2016, did not infringe on the copyright that was originally registered in 1973.
By declining to hear the appeal, the Supreme Court left in place a decision from the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appealssiding with Sheeran. The suit before the high court was filed by a company called Structured Asset Sales, which owned a one-ninth interest in the royalties from “Let’s Get It On,” Gaye’s iconic Motown song.
The question put to the justices was whether the appeals court gave too much deference to the US Copyright Office interpretation of the Copyright Act of 1909. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority recently limited the circumstances under which courts are supposed to defer to interpretations of vague laws by federal agencies, overturning a 1984 precedentChevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
The Copyright Office concluded that the protections for the song were limited to the handwritten sheet music Gaye’s co-writer, Ed Townsend, had submitted in the 1970s. Structured Asset Sales claimed that Sheeran’s song copied elements of “Let’s Get It On,” like the drums and tempo. The company argued that the rights to many other songs were at stake in case.
“The rights of thousands of legacy musical composers and artists, of many of the most beloved and enduring pieces of popular music, are at the center of the controversy,” its attorneys told the Supreme Court.
But Sheeran’s lawyers countered, among other things, that the sheet music submitted did not indicate a tempo. They also argued that the text of the copyright law is clear and didn’t require courts to defer to the Copyright Office’s interpretation.