Bray & Krais Solicitors clients Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac win High Court copyright dispute

A short while ago Mr Justice Zacaroli handed down an important and clear judgment in favour of our clients Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac who together with our publisher clients successfully obtained a declaration that Shape of You did not in any way infringe the defendants’ song.

We are proud of our dispute resolution team spearheaded by Andrew Forbes and Simon Goodbody who helped to secure this very favourable result. Special thank you to our excellent Counsel team: Ian Mill QC, Jessie Bowhill and Rayan Tarek-Fakhoury.

Andrew Forbes and Simon Goodbody commented: “The judgment is an emphatic vindication of the creative genius of Ed, Johnny and Steve – as they have always maintained, they created Shape Of You together, without copying from anyone else.”

A link to the full joint written statement by the writer clients may be found here.

A link to today’s ruling may be found here.

Andrew and Simon’s comment was published in The Independent, The Telegraph, Sky News, Yahoo News, MSN News, and Music Week. Simon was also interviewed on LBC News regarding today’s ruling, and commented in The Times, 7 April 2022, here.

RELATED

Jonathan Coote provides written evidence to All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry into AI and the Music Industry

Associate Jonathan Coote has provided written evidence to UK Music re the All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry into AI and the music industry. You can read his report here.  Jonathan has...

Read more >

Simon Goodbody discusses the fallout between UMG and TikTok in an article published by the Law360

UMG-TikTok IP Rift Highlights Effective Rights Control Issues By Simon Goodbody (March 14, 2024) Universal Music Group NV, the world’s largest music rights holder, seems on the brink o...

Read more >

TikTok faces legal battle with UMG

Partner, Simon Goodbody, speaks to The Times’ Technology Business Editor, Katie Prescott, to discuss the implications of TikTok’s continued exploitation of UMG’s catalogue following th...

Read more >
< BACK TO INSIGHTS