Ed Sheeran won a U.K. copyright battle over his 2017 hit "Shape of You" on Wednesday.
The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol's John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had denied allegations that the song copied part of 2015's "Oh Why" by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.
Andrew Sutcliffe, the lawyer for the co-writers of "Oh Why,'' argued that there was an "indisputable similarity between the works." He claimed that Sheeran had "Oh Why" in his head "consciously or unconsciously" when "Shape of You" was written in 2016.
In Wednesday's ruling, High Court Judge Antony Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran "neither deliberately nor subconsciously" copied a phrase from "Oh Why″ when writing his smash hit.
Sheeran said later in a video, "Whilst we're obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim. It's really damaging to the songwriting industry."
Source: USA Today, NPR.
Photo Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images .