Ed Sheeran to stand trial over $100M copyright lawsuit

Ed Sheeran is soon to be summoned to court to stand trial over copyright accusations.

The Shape of You singer has reportedly been asked to appear in court in his $100 million copyright lawsuit over claims that he copied elements from Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic Let's Get It On for his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud.

Sheeran’s lawyers had previously made efforts to dissolve the lawsuit, arguing that the elements that were similar in the two tracks were not unique enough to be covered under copyright law.

The argument was rejected by the US district judge Louis Stanton, who ruled that the 31-year-old musician must face a jury, because "although the two musical compositions are not identical, a jury could find that the overlap between the songs’ combination of chord progression and harmonic rhythm is very close.”

The civil trial will take place in Manhattan. A date is yet to be set by the judge.