The verdict in New York came after a two-week trial that featured a courtroom performance by Sheeran as the singer insisted, sometimes angrily, that the trial was a threat to all musicians who create their own music.
Songwriter Ed Townsend's heirs, who sued Sheeran, said in their lawsuit that “Thinking Out Loud” had "striking similarities” and “overt common elements” that made it obvious that it had copied “Let's Get It On,” a song that has been featured in numerous films and commercials and scored hundreds of millions of streams spins and radio plays in the past half century.
The jury saw video of a concert in Switzerland in which Sheeran can be heard segueing on stage between “Let's Get It On” and “Thinking Out Loud.” The plaintiff's lawyer, Ben Crump said that was “smoking gun” proof he stole from the famous tune.
When Sheeran testified, he repeatedly picked up a guitar resting behind him on the witness stand to demonstrate how he seamlessly creates “mashups” of songs during concerts to “spice it up a bit” for his sizeable crowds.
“When you write songs, somebody comes after you,” Sheeran said during his testimony as he explained that the case was being closely watched by others in the industry.
He insisted that he stole nothing from “Let's Get it On” when he wrote his tune.
Sheeran's song, which came out in 2014, was a hit, winning a Grammy for song of the year. His lawyers argued that the songs shared versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression freely available to all songwriters.
Townsend, who also wrote the 1958 R&B doo-wop hit “For Your Love,” was a singer, songwriter and lawyer who died in 2003.
