Two months ago, a judge ruled that Ed Sheeran did not plagiarism lyrics to make his 2017 smash hit, “Shape Of You.” A year after the song was released, songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue made a copyright infringement claim against Sheeran — as well as fellow songwriters Steven McCutcheon and Johnny McDaid. They alleged that he took elements of their 2015 single “Oh Why,” which Chokri released as Sami Switch, to create “Shape Of You.” Since that claim was filed, royalties for the song had been frozen, but to the excitement of Sheeran’s team, he won the lawsuit back in April. However, thanks to a new report from Billboard, that’s not all he won.
Sheeran will also go home with more than £900,000 ($1.1 million) after he was awarded that amount in legal costs by Judge Antony Zacaroli according to Billboard. After the initial ruling was handed down, lawyers representing Chokri and O’Donoghue claimed that Sheeran, McCutcheon, and McDaid should be deprived of all their costs due to their “conduct… both before and during the proceedings.” They added that Sheeran’s legal team did not conduct pre-action correspondence and failed to disclose voice notes and project files that detailed how “Shape of You” was written.
Judge Zacaroli did not side with Chokri and O’Donoghue’s lawyers and he ruled that Sheeran and his co-writers were entitled to an “interim payment” of £916,200. That amount could change as a senior judge may decide to reduce the final amount that Sheeran’s team receives.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.