Copyright claim against Ed Sheeran’s ‘Photograph’ dismissed
A district judge has dismissed a copyright claim brought by two US musicians over singer Ed Sheeran’s hit “Photograph”.
Judge James Selna of the US District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division dismissed (pdf) with prejudice the copyright claim brought by Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard yesterday, April 10.
In June last year, WIPR reported that Sheeran had been named in a copyright infringement claim by Harrington and Leonard.
The pair filed their complaint at the California court on June 8.
They argued that Sheeran’s song “Photograph” had similar elements to their track “Amazing”.
“Photograph” was included in the album “x”, released in the US in 2014. The song came out as a single a year later.
Harrington and Leonard, who own music company HaloSongs, claim to have written “Amazing” in 2009.
“Amazing” was performed by Matt Cardle, the winner of the “X Factor 2010” singing competition in the UK.
In the suit, the pair said Sheeran “copied, and exploited, without authorisation or credit, the work of other active, professional songwriters, on a breath-taking scale”.
In October last year, WIPR reported that lawyers for Sheeran asked the court to dismiss the copyright claim or strike from it “certain matter” that is “redundant, immaterial or scandalous”.
Today's top stories
Oculus seeks to overturn $500m copyright and TM verdict
Siemens employee arrested over suspected trade secrets theft
CBP sides with Arista in Cisco patent dispute
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox
Already registered?
Login to your account
If you don't have a login or your access has expired, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content.
For more information on individual annual subscriptions for full paid access and corporate subscription options please contact us.
To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk