Entertainment Music Ed Sheeran Faces 'Thinking Out Loud' Plagiarism Lawsuit to the Tune of $100 Million: Report Ed Sheeran is facing a $100 million plagiarism lawsuit alleging that his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud" borrowed heavily from Marvin Gaye's classic "Let's Get it On" By Jordan Runtagh Jordan Runtagh Jordan Runtagh is an executive podcast producer at iHeartRadio, where he hosts a slate of pop culture shows including Too Much Information, Inside the Studio, Off the Record and Rivals: Music's Greatest Feuds. Previously, he served as a music editor at PEOPLE and VH1.com. He's written about art and entertainment for more than a decade, regularly contributing to outlets like Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, and appearing as a guest on radio and television. Over the course of his career, he's profiled the surviving Beatles, Brian Wilson, Aretha Franklin, Roger Waters, David Byrne, Pete Townshend, Debbie Harry, Quincy Jones, Brian May, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Taylor and many more. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, he lives in Brooklyn, where he can be found DJing '60s soul records. People Editorial Guidelines Published on June 28, 2018 12:35PM EDT Ed Sheeran is facing a $100 million plagiarism lawsuit alleging that his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” borrowed too heavily from Marvin Gaye‘s sultry bedroom classic, “Let’s Get It On.” According to TMZ, Structured Asset Sales has filed a suit claiming the monster single from Sheeran’s X album uses melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, instrumental and dynamic elements taken from Gaye’s 1973 song. A rep for Sheeran did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. This is not the first time the accusation has been made. In 2016 Sheeran was sued by the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Gaye, but the case was ultimately dismissed the following year. Now that the Townsend family has sold a third of their shares in “Let’s Get It On” to Structured Asset Sales, the organization is relaunching the suit. Listen to More Soundalike Songs Involved in Plagiarism Lawsuits At present it remains unclear whether the Gaye family will enter the legal fray. The decedents of the late “What’s Going On” singer famously took on Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. over their 2013 smash “Blurred Lines,” which they believed resembled Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” The courts agreed and awarded the family $7.4 million in damages in 2015. Dave J Hogan/Getty Images; Jim Britt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Others have alleged similarities between Sheeran and Gaye’s songs. In 2016, during Boyz II Men’s 25th anniversary show in New Jersey, the group pointed out the apparent likeness between the tracks as they started a cover of “Let’s Get It On” before transitioning into “Thinking Out Loud.” Sheeran’s dealt with similar legal troubles in the recent past, having been sued over his song “Photograph” in June 2016. Songwriters Martin Harrington and Tom Leonard filed a lawsuit alleging that Sheeran’s song sounded too similar to “Amazing,” a tune they had written for British X Factor winner Matt Cardle in 2011. Harrington and Leonard sought a jury trial and damages in excess of $20 million, as well as royalties. The case was settled privately out of court in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.