The US Supreme Courtroom has rejected a rehearing of a copyright infringement case over Ed Sheeran’s hit Pondering Out Loud.
On Monday (June 16), the Supreme Courtroom refused to listen to an enchantment from Structured Asset Gross sales (SAS) – which misplaced a case in a decrease court docket, the place it claimed that Pondering Out Loud violated the copyright on Marvin Gaye’s 1973 tune Let’s Get It On.
The case pitting Sheeran towards SAS is separate from one other lawsuit alleging that Sheeran’s Pondering Out Loud copied Gaye’s Let’s Get It On.
That different case, introduced by the heirs of Ed Townsend, a co-writer of Let’s Get It On, was settled by a jury in 2023, which sided with Sheeran.
Structured Asset Gross sales, which was based and run by David Pullman, and owns a share of Townsend’s songwriter curiosity in Let’s Get It On, initially sued Sheeran in 2018.
In 2023, a federal court docket in New York summarily dominated in favor of the singer and songwriter, label Warner Music Group and writer Sony Music Publishing.
SAS then launched what would turn into a collection of appeals.
In November 2024, the Second Circuit Courtroom of Appeals upheld the unique district court docket ruling. SAS’s attorneys petitioned the court docket for a re-hearing, which the appellate court docket denied.
SAS was then left solely with the choice of interesting to the Supreme Courtroom, which it did in March.
Final month, attorneys for Sheeran, his label and his music writer urged the US Supreme Courtroom to reject a rehearing of the copyright case, arguing that overruling the decrease court docket’s choice may result in widespread speculative copyright lawsuits.
Sheeran’s attorneys instructed the Supreme Courtroom, in a quick filed on Could 13, {that a} ruling in favor of Structured Asset Gross sales “would foment huge uncertainty and encourage rampant hypothesis” on what components of a tune are copyrighted.
On Monday, the Supreme Courtroom justices turned down Structured Asset Gross sales’ request to revive the case.Music Enterprise Worldwide
