Ed Sheeran copyright issues: How many lawsuits has the singer faced over his music?

Ed Sheeran is appearing in court for his second copyright lawsuit in two years.

It is in fact the third time the Bad Habits singer has been sued for claims he had copied another song to create one of his hits.

The Perfect singer, aged 32, is estimated to have a net worth of £147m ($200m) and has five No 1 albums and 11 No 1 singles under his belt. And yet the songwriter and father-of-two keeps being accused to plagiarising other people's music.

Read more: Ed Sheeran reveals mental health struggle after copyright case victory

So which of Sheeran's songs have landed him in court and what has been the outcome?

We look at the shape of the singer's legal battles to date.

Photograph

Sheeran was first hit with a copyright claim back in 2016 for his 2015 single Photograph, which charted at No 15 in the UK.

Songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard sued Sheeran for $20m claiming he had copied "note-for-note" sequences from their track 2012 Amazing, performed by The X Factor winner Matt Cardle.

The claimants were represented by Richard Busch, the same lawyer who represented the family of Marvin Gaye in their successful lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, over their hit Blurred Lines.

Cardle sided with Sheeran, saying: "This is not my lawsuit. I think Ed Sheeran is a genius and 100% deserves all his success.”

In the end Sheeran reached an undisclosed settlement agreement with the songwriters.

• Read more here: Ed Sheeran just settled a £15 million copyright lawsuit (Business Insider UK, 1 min read)

Shape Of You

In early 2022 Sheeran appeared at London's High Court to defend his 2017 hit single Shape Of You against a copyright dispute.

Songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue accused the singer of stealing parts of their song Oh Why, which was released in March 2015 performed by Sami Switch.

They claimed the repetition of the phrase "Oh I" four times in ascension had been taken from their track.

Their lawyer said in court that Sheeran “borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won’t”. Sheeran denied this was true.

During the hearing Sheeran had sung sections of Nina Simone's Feeling Good and Blackstreet’s No Diggity in order to demonstrate that the echo of the pentatonic scale was so common, it could not be attributed to one artist.

He won the case, with the judge ruling, that he “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” stole a musical phrase from Oh Why.

• Read more here: The Ed Sheeran Shape of You verdict reveals the realities of pop songwriting in the streaming era (Independent, 4 min read)

Thinking Out Loud

Sheeran is currently appearing in court in New York over claims his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud imitates parts of Marvin Gaye's 1973 hit Let's Get It On.

Gaye died in 1984 but the legal action is being brought by the owners of the estate of his co-writer Ed Townsend.

Sheeran first faced accusations he had copied Let's Get It On in 2016 and the case was dismissed by a judge, without prejudice, in 2017.

The Townsend estate filed a new lawsuit in 2018 and despite Sheeran's attempts to have it dismissed once again, the case is now being heard in front of a jury in the US federal court.

Watch: Ed Sheeran takes the stand in latest copyright trial

Part of the legal case against Sheeran includes a video of Sheeran seguing from Thinking Out Loud into Let's Get It On during a live performance.

The singer testified in court; "If I’d done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be an idiot to stand on stage in front of 20,000 people [and play them together]."

Sheeran claims both tracks use a similar but unprotectable chord progression. He said: "It is my belief that most pop songs are built on building blocks that have been freely available for 100s of years."

• Read more here: Ed Sheeran takes witness stand in New York copyright trial (Evening Standard, 2 min read)

The latest trial is expected to last up to two weeks.