The ongoing legal saga between Ed Sheeran and the owner of the rights to Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” may not be over just yet. Despite Sheeran’s successful defense in two separate lawsuits last year, Structured Asset Sales (SAS), the company behind one of the lawsuits, is now asking an appeals court to reconsider its earlier ruling.
The dispute stems from SAS’s claim that Sheeran’s hit song “Thinking Out Loud” copied the bass line from “Let’s Get It On”. In 2023, a US District Court judge dismissed the case, ruling that SAS’s musicology experts could not testify in court and instead relied on the “deposit copy” of the song filed with the US Copyright Office. The Copyright Office’s policy, which dates back to 1909, only accepts sheet music as a deposit copy, not recorded music.
However, this past summer, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that challenged this policy, stating that courts don’t have to automatically accept a government agency’s interpretation of the law. This has given SAS hope that the previous ruling in its case may no longer apply.
The company is now asking the Second Circuit Court of Appeal to grant an en banc hearing, where all the judges on the court would review the case. SAS’s lawyers argue that the issue at hand is critical not just for the company, but for thousands of legacy songwriters who may have submitted sheet music as deposit copies instead of recorded music.
The outcome of this appeal is far from certain, and it remains to be seen whether the appeals court will agree to re-hear the case.
