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 The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed by Martin
Harrington, a songwriter and producer, and Thomas Leonard, a
songwriter signed to Harrington's company HaloSongs, in federal
court in the Central District of California.
The two musicians allege Sheeran's ballad "Photograph," released
as a single in 2015, has the same musical composition to their
song "Amazing," which they said they wrote in 2009.
Other named defendants include Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid,
credited as a co-writer of "Photograph," as well as units of
Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner Music Group and its
subsidiary, Atlantic Recording Corporation.
Representatives for Sheeran, McDaid, Sony Music, Warner Music
and Atlantic did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests
for comment on Wednesday.
Harrington and Leonard are seeking a jury trial and damages in
excess of $20 million, as well as royalties from the song.
In documents that include musical note comparison and chord
breakdowns of the two songs, Harrington and Leonard claim the
chorus of Sheeran's "Photograph" shares 39 identical notes with
"Amazing," saying the similarities are "instantly recognizable
to the ordinary observer."
The documents say that "Photograph" has sold more than 3.5
million copies worldwide, and most recently was featured
prominently in romantic drama movie "Me Before You," released
last week, as well as trailers for the film.
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Grammy-winning Sheeran, 25, has become one of UK's top-selling
artists in the past two years, and has written and co-written tracks
for artists such as One Direction, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.
"Photograph" was the fifth single from Sheeran's breakout 2014 album
"x" (pronounced 'multiply'). The lawsuit says Sheeran had called the
song "the one that will change (his), kind of, career path."
Harrington and Leonard's song "Amazing" was adapted into a single of
the same name for British singer Matt Cardle, the 2010 winner of the
UK's "The X Factor" reality singing competition.
Cardle's "Amazing" to date has just over 1 million views on YouTube,
while Sheeran's music video for "Photograph" has 208 million YouTube
views.
The lawsuit against Sheeran comes after the family of late soul
singer Marvin Gaye successfully sued R&B recording artists Robin
Thicke and Pharrell Williams for copyright infringement last year
over their hit single "Blurred Lines," winning a $7.4 million
judgment.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bill Rigby)
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