Ed Sheeran breaks silence over 'hurt and pain' after he wins High Court battle over hit song

Ed Sheeran has broken his silence and issued a joint statement after he won a High Court battle over one of his hit songs. A judge ruled that the singer's 2017 track Shape Of You does not infringe another artist's copyright.

At a trial last month (March), Sheeran and his Shape Of You co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, faced accusations that they ripped off the 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.

The singer-songwriter and his co-authors originally launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and O’Donoghue’s copyright. But two months later, Chokri – a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch – and O’Donoghue issued their own claim for "copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement".

READ MORE: Gemma Collins 'booed' for comment as she makes 'incredible' debut with tour in Manchester

In a ruling on Wednesday (Apri 6), Mr Justice Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran "neither deliberately nor subconsciously" copied a phrase from Oh Why when writing Shape Of You.

Sheeran has now called for the end of "baseless claims" after winning his High Court copyright battle. In a video shared on Instagram, the singing star said: "Hey guys, me, Johnny and Steve have made a joint statement that will be press-released on the outcome of this case but I wanted to make a small video to talk about it a bit because I’ve not really been able to say anything while it’s been going on.

"While we are happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it