Ed Sheeran vs Marvin Gaye: Why this lawsuit is absolutely ridiculous 

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It\'s important to note from the off that it isn\'t Marvin Gaye\'s estate who have filed the lawsuit this time. Instead it has been brought forward by the heirs of \'Let\'s Get It On\' co-writer Ed Townsend. That being said, if the Townsend estate is successful, surely it would raise a green flag for the Gayes to swoop in and also claim their half too? That, of course, could be a way off yet.

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The Townsend heirs have alleged willful infringement on Sheeran\'s part. "The harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements, as observed in Let\'s have made [it] one of the most well-known and instantly recognisable songs in R&B history," the suit reads. "These elements… are the \'heart\' or qualitatively, the most important elements of the song as indicated by critical acclaim."

The fact that The Temptations\' \'My Girl\' - released nine years before \'Let\'s Get It On\' - also slides nicely into the above mash-up, suggests that Gaye\'s iconic track wasn\'t exactly sensationally original to begin with. Yes it remains iconic, but so many songs that have stood the test of time are relatively similar - particularly from that era. Motown founder Berry Gordy made his empire on repackaging the same beats, chords and ideas across all of his acts until the idea finally stuck with the right one.

But what sticks with us is that, increasingly more, these cases seems to always come from a business boardroom, rather than a genuine artistic injustice. Madonna kicked up a stink when she realised Lady Gaga\'s \'Born This Way\' bared a resemblance to her own \'Express Yourself\', but she didn\'t sue. Earlier this year, mash-ups of Britney Spears\'s \'Overprotected\' and Meghan Trainor\'s \'No\' did the rounds, but they simply admitted an appreciation of each other - no lawyers involved.

Hey, even when the opening bars of One Direction\'s 2014 single \'Steal My Girl\' sounded remarkably similar to The Who\'s \'Baba O\'Reily\', frontman Pete Townsend (same name, different family) didn\'t even think about bringing forward a lawsuit. "No! I like the single. I like One Direction," he said when asked if he was annoyed. "The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we\'ve all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don\'t mean great music – not always. I\'m still writing songs that sound like \'Baba O\'Riley\' – or I\'m trying to!"

Artists understand that - to a certain extent - the creative process is always influenced by what has come before it. As film director Jim Jarmusch famously once said: "Authenticity is invaluable, originality is nonexistent." That\'s what makes this case brought forward against Ed Sheeran so frustrating. The British star has zero pretense. He knew he was creating a straight-up pop ballad that would appeal to the masses - the references to classic soul are clear. It\'s been done a million times before by countless different artists, but the reason Ed\'s stuck and became a hit is because he gave it his

. We believe him when he\'s sings those lyrics while trying to keep up with the ballroom dance.

But it also suggests that a song released 43 years ago will face financial damages, as if people were still buying it in their millions at the turn of 2014. We\'re sure there have been plenty of soul songs in the past four decades that have evoked "the heart" of \'Let\'s Get It On\', so why haven\'t the Townsend heirs gone after them too? With more than a million copies of \'Thinking\' sold in the US, a further 2 million in the UK, and over a billion streams on Spotify, there\'s millions in the pot already. It\'s a well-reared cash cow ready to be carved.

And that\'s what this essentially boils down to. Money. When Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were forced to pay £4.8m to the Gaye estate last year, the music industry warned that it set a concerning precedent for future cases to be brought forward. And here we are, little over 12 months later.

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