Ed Sheeran will reportedly stand trial in his $100 million copyright case over his hit 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’

According to reports, English musician Ed Sheeran will go on trial in his $100 million copyright dispute over accusations that he plagiarised Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ for his 2014 smash song ‘Thinking Out Loud.’

A Manhattan federal judge recently denied the 31-year-old singer’s attempts to have the protracted copyright case dismissed.

Sheeran’s legal team argued that the case was illegal because the similarities between the two tunes’ components did not make them distinctive enough to fall under the purview of copyright law. His legal team contended that the complaint wasn’t relevant, citing a number of other songs, such as ‘Since I Lost My Baby,’ as instances of songs with comparable themes.

However, the US district judge Louis Stanton stated that there was ‘no bright-line rule’, and that Sheeran must face a jury to resolve the issue. The judge cited a disagreement between musical experts as a reason for his decision.

The judge stated that there is ‘no clear-cut rule’ that the combination of two unprotectable parts is insufficiently numerous to qualify as an independent work. Even though a piece of work is fully made up of unprotectable materials, it may nonetheless be copyrighted.’

Stanton continued, ‘A jury could determine that the overlap between the songs’ combinations of chord progression and harmonic rhythm is very similar even though the two musical compositions are not identical.’

There will be a civil trial in Manhattan. The judge has not yet scheduled a date.