Sussex singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran just appeared at New York's Manhattan Federal Court to deny that his 2014 track 'Thinking Out Loud' copied Marvin Gaye's song 'Let's Get It On.'

Heirs of Gaye's co-writer Ed Townsend are suing Sheeran, co-writer Amy Wadge, Warner Music Group and music publisher Sony Music Publishing for allegedly copying the "melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping" of the 1973 hit.

In opening statements on Tuesday, lawyers for the plaintiffs claimed that Sheeran "recognised the magic" of Gaye's song and "decided to capture a bit of that magic for his own benefit".

Sheeran argued that any similarities between 'Thinking Out Loud' and 'Let's Get It On' should be attributed to basic musical "building blocks" which are ineligible for copyright protection, and stated that his song was inspired by his grandparents, and composed by himself and Wedge in a collaborative writing session.

The plaintiffs lawyers brought attention to a video of Sheeran performing a live mashup of 'Thinking Out Loud' with 'Let’s Get It On,' calling it a "smoking gun" and a "confession."

But Sheeran refuted, countering that he'd have to "be a quite an idiot" to perform the two if he had copied the song, and stated that he sometimes mixed songs together during his concerts.

"Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs … You could go from 'Let it Be' to 'No Woman, No Cry' and switch back," he remarked, referring to songs by The Beatles and Bob Marley.

When interrupted by lawyer Keisha Rice, Sheeran appeared frustrated, saying: "I feel like you don’t want me to answer because you know that what I’m going to say is actually going to make quite a lot of sense."

The current trial is expected to last about a week. If the jury finds Sheeran guilty copyright infringement, the trial will enter a second phase to determine how much his labels owe.

The trial comes just weeks before Sheeran is slated to release his fifth studio album, Subtract. 

Ed Sheeran has won a High Court copyright battle over his 2017 hit 'Shape of You' back in April 2022. 'Shape of You' was the UK's best-selling song of 2017 in the UK and is Spotify's most-streamed ever.

A judge ruled that the singer-songwriter, Snow Patrol's John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon had not plagiarised the 2015 song 'Oh Why' by Sami Chokri.

Chokri, a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch, had claimed the "Oh I" hook in Sheeran's track was "strikingly similar" to an "Oh why" refrain in his own track.

After the ruling, Sheeran said such "baseless" claims "are way too common". In a video on social media, he said there was now a culture "where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no basis for the claim".

"It's really damaging to the songwriting industry. There's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That's 22 million songs a year and there's only 12 notes that are available."