Ed Sheeran Has Faced Multiple Copyright Infringement Claims in His Career

Pop star Ed Sheeran has, over the course of more than a decade, built out the kind of career that many musicians would be jealous of. That career hasn't been entirely smooth sailing, though, and Ed has actually faced a number of lawsuits over the course of his career.

Typically, those lawsuits are focused on copyright infringement, and come from other artists who claim that he stole at least part of their song for one of his own. Here's what we know about why Ed has faced these kinds of lawsuits.

Ed has been sued at three notable junctures over the course of his career for copyright infringement. The first of those lawsuits was filed in 2017 over claims that his song "Perfect" featured a chorus that was a "note-for-note" copy of the song "Amazing," which won X Factor UK. That lawsuit was settled out of court, although Ed said that he later regretted his decision to settle because of the way it changed his relationship to the song.

"I didn't play 'Photograph' for ages after that. I just stopped playing it. I felt weird about it, it kind of made me feel dirty," he explained to The Independent. He also suspects that settling the first lawsuit might have been the thing that opened the door for subsequent litigation.

The second and most famous copyright case Ed faced was over his song "Thinking out Loud," which was filed by Marvin Gaye's estate over claims that Ed had copied his song "Let's Get It On."

A jury in the case ultimately found that Ed had not willfully plagiarized the Marvin Gaye song.

"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," Sheeran told reporters outside the courthouse, per ABC. "But at the same time, I'm unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all."

In the case, Ed's attorneys argued that, while the two songs used similar rhythms and chord progressions, that was true of many pop songs, and didn't indicate that Ed had willfully copied Marvin's song.

Another, more minor lawsuit involved Ed's song "The Shape of You," which musicians Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue claimed copied particular lines and phrases from their song "Oh Why." Ed won a dismissal in that case.

While we don't know exactly why each of these lawsuits was filed, it seems likely that it was in part because the plaintiffs felt that they could build a credible case. Although these cases did not result in a guilty verdict, it's possible that Ed is seen now as an easy target for further litigation.

The singer is clearly frustrated by having to be dragged to court on a regular basis to defend his work. Art is all about making references to things that have come before, but it's a fine line between making references and outright stealing the work of your predecessors. Legally, at least, Ed has remained on the right side of that line.