(Bloomberg) -- Pop star Ed Sheeran won a copyright infringement battle over his hit single ‘Shape of You' which he was accused of stealing from a U.K. grime artist.
Sami Switch said that Sheeran ripped off a key part of his 2015 track that made it into the song that reached number one in the U.K. singles charts in Jan. 2017.
Sheeran was accused of copying his single ‘Oh Why,' claiming the “Oh I” hook in Sheeran's track was similar to his. Lawyers for Chokri claimed that Sheeran was a “magpie” who habitually copied other artists during the 11 day court trial in London.
A London judge didn't quite see it that way in a ruling published on Wednesday, when he ruled Sheeran did not deliberately or self-consciously copy the hook and although there is similarities in the songs, there is “significant differences.”
“As they have always maintained, they created ‘Shape Of You' together, without copying from anyone else,” Sheeran's lawyers said in a statement referring to the writers.
Sheeran has also been embroiled in another copyright fight in the U.S. The owners of Marvin Gaye's ‘Let's Get It On' have accused him of copying the classic song with his release of ‘Thinking Out Loud.'
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