Ed Sheeran was found not liable for copyright infringement on Thursday after being sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who composed the 1973 classic Let’s Get It On with Marvin Gaye.

Sheeran’s 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ was claimed to have been a copy of Gaye’s hit song and copied its rhythmic elements without permission. Although the lawsuit was filed in 2017, it took six years to make it to a Manhattan federal court.

Meanwhile, from the very beginning, Sheeran denied plagiarising Gaye’s song. According to his lawyers, the song uses common constructions which are found in a number of pop tracks. Sheeran even went so far as to claim that he was going to quit music if the trial did not go in his favor.

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Ed Townsend was married once and had two sons and one daughter. Here is more information on them:

Kathryn Griffin-Townsend

Kathryn Griffin-Townsend was among the singer’s heirs who are suing the British singer. In a dramatic turn of events, last month, in the middle of the ongoing trial, she fainted in the courtroom just as Sheeran’s attorneys began cross-examining a music expert testifying about the song’s composition. She had to be carried out on a stretcher.

She was leaving the courtroom when she abruptly fell, according to New York Post. A few men lifted her up by her arms and legs in the gallery before she received medical attention. After that, she was physically carried out.

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David Townsend

Townsend’s son, David Townsend was a member of the group Surface. He was born in 1955 in Inglewood, California. From a very young age, he showed an interest in music and learned to play an array of instruments, including the guitar, piano, and synthesizer.

Initially, he joined the Isley Brothers’ band Sunrize, produced by the Isley Brothers in 1982, as a guitarist. He later a group called Port Authority with David Conley, another singer, and musician. David had a song that he co-wrote with Conley to reach No. 1 on the US R&B charts.

The group disbanded in 1994. However, in 1999, the band reunited and released their final studio album Love Zone. Although they planned for a reunion tour, those plans were canceled when Townsend was found dead at his home on October 26, 2005, in Northridge, California.

Nothing is known about Townsend’s other son.