At a trial in March, Snow Patrol singer and co-writer John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon faced accusations that their track broke a 2015 song by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue. However, Justice Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran “neither intentionally nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from the song. Sheeran, his co-authors and their music companies initially launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the Supreme Court to declare that they had not infringed on the copyrights of Chokri and O’Donoghue. Two months later, Chokri – a make-up artist playing Sami Switch – and O’Donoghue filed their own claim for “copyright infringement, loss and profits in connection with the alleged infringement”. The couple had claimed that an “oh I” hook on Shape Of You was “strikingly similar” to a “oh Why” chorus on their own track. But in his previous judgment, Zacaroli concluded that Mr Sheeran had not heard Oh Why and in any case did not deliberately copy the phrase “oh I” from the “oh why” hook. He dismissed the counterclaim and made a statement to Sheeran and his fellow songwriters that they had not infringed on the copyright to Oh Why. Following the ruling, Chokri and O’Donoghue’s lawyers said that Sheeran and the other plaintiffs would have to pay their own costs, claiming that they had not produced any documents and had shown “clumsiness and opacity”. However, in a ruling on Tuesday, Zacaroli said the lesser-known songwriters would have to pay the court costs, ordering an interim payment of 16 916,200. A new hearing is expected to evaluate and finalize the amounts. “I think it’s appropriate for the plaintiffs’ success to be reflected in a series of costs being paid by the defendants, with no reduction other than what is done as part of the detailed evaluation process,” Zakaroli said. The judge rejected the arguments that the defendants would have changed their approach to the case if some documents and explanations had been provided earlier on how Shape of You was written. Zakaroli said: “None of the revelations or explanations given to the accused made them change their approach at all. “On the contrary, they not only continued their attack on Mr. Sheeran, but expanded it by claiming that it was a ‘buzzard’ that typically appropriated song ideas from other authors.” Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST During the 11-day trial in central London, Sheeran denied that he had “borrowed” ideas from unknown unrecognized songwriters and insisted that he “always tried to be completely fair” to the people who contributed to his albums. In a videotaped message after the ruling in April, Sheeran said: “Claims like this are very common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than going to court, even if there is no basis for the claim, and it is really detrimental to the songwriting industry. “The lawsuits are not a pleasant experience and I hope with this decision it means that in the future unfounded allegations like this can be avoided. That must really end. “
