Suffolk star Ed Sheeran has won a US copyright lawsuit which alleged he copied parts of Marvin Gaye’s hit song Let’s Get It On for his own track Thinking Out Loud.

The Framlingham-raised singer, who recently released his The Sum of It All documentary on Disney+, was taken to court by the family of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer of the 1973 soul classic.

The Townsend family claimed that Sheeran’s 2014 song, written with collaborator Amy Wadge, bore “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” to Let’s Get It On.

Following a trial in New York, which included several live singing performances by Sheeran, jurors found he had not infringed on the family’s copyright interest in Gaye’s song.

During the trial, jurors heard from numerous industry experts and musicologists, as well as Sheeran himself.

At one point in his testimony, the musician picked up his guitar to play a rendition of Thinking Out Loud, to explain his songwriting process.

He reportedly became frustrated at times, describing the testimony of one of the plaintiff’s expert witnesses as “criminal” and said that he found the entire case “really insulting”.

Townsend’s family brought the case against Sheeran, his label Warner Music Group, and his music publisher Sony Music Publishing, in 2017.

Their original complaint claimed that Sheeran had infringed on their interest in Gaye’s song by copying its “harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements” – which they described as the “heart” of the track.

“The Defendants copied the ‘heart’ of Let ‘s (Get It On) and repeated it continuously throughout Thinking (Out Loud),” their claim stated, adding that it had been done “without consent, credit or compensation”.

It is the second copyright trial Sheeran has faced in a little over a year after he was taken to court over his hit Shape of You in 2022.

Sheeran was also successful in that case at the High Court, when grime artist Sami Chokri claimed he had used part of his song Oh Why.