Ed Sheeran found not liable of copying Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" in hit song "Thinking Out Loud"
NEW YORK -- There was a verdict Thursday in the week-long copyright infringement trial against singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. A federal jury found he did not wrongfully copy a classic Marvin Gaye song.
CBS2 was in the courtroom as the decision was read.
"I'm obviously very happy with the outcome of the case and it looks like I'm not having to retire from my day job after all. But at the same time, I'm unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all," Sheeran said.
READ MORE: Ed Sheeran gets a bit testy Monday during copyright infringement trial
Sheeran hugged his attorneys in court after a jury found he did not copy Gaye's 1973 song "Lets Get It On" when he wrote his hit "Thinking Out Loud." On Monday, Sheeran even played songs by him and others to show what is widely recognized as a common building block in popular music -- the four chord progression.
Sheeran's team argued that was the only similarity between the two songs.
Sheeran was sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote "Let's Get It On" with Gaye. Their attorney, Ben Crump, was not in court Thursday. Townsend's daughter, Kathryn Townsend-Griffin only said one thing: "God is good all the time and all the time God is good."
READ MORE: Ed Sheeran, on guitar, gets musical with a New York jury
The jury of three men and four women got the case late Wednesday and took around three hours Thursday to deliberate.
"There was a lot of back and forth. Both sides had great lawyers and did a great job and it was a very interesting case," juror Sophie Nies said.
Sheeran's wife had an emotional embrace with a friend and gave cameras a thumb's up. Amy Wadge co-wrote "Thinking Out Loud" with Sheeran.
"This has been a hell of a couple of weeks, a hell of a seven years, but to get a verdict that we just got, I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am for the songwriting industry," Wadge said.
"If the jury had decided this matter the other way, we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters," Sheeran added.
CBS2 did reach out to Crump for comment, but did not hear back. Last year, Sheeran won another copyright lawsuit in the United Kingdom over a different song.
A few years ago, Gaye's estate did sue two other pop singers and won, after a court found a different Gaye hit, "Got To Give It Up" was copied.
