Ed Sheeran Wins Shape of You Plagiarism Case, Calls Out 'Baseless Claims'

According to multiple reports on Wednesday, a London High Court judge ruled Sheeran had not copied Sami Switch's 2017 song, "Oh Why."

Following the news of his win, Sheeran shared a video on Instagram, in which he reacted to the verdict, slamming the "baseless claims."

"I wanted to make a small video to talk about it a bit because I've not really been able to say anything whilst it's been going on," the four-time Grammy winner began. "We're obviously 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 to court."

Sheeran added that "even if there's no base for the claim, it's really damaging to the songwriting industry," noting that "there's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music."

"Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify," he continued. "That's 22 million songs a year, and there's only 12 notes that are available."

The "Shivers" singer went on to add: "I don't wanna take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered from both sides of this case. But I just to say: I'm not an entity. I'm not a corporation. I'm a human being. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a son."

Sheeran concluded by sharing how he hopes his case can be an example for the future.

"Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience. And I hope with this ruling, it means in the future baseless claims like this can be avoided. This really does have to end," he said, adding that he and his team are "grateful for all of the support" they've received. "Hopefully, we can all get back to writing songs rather than having to prove that we can write them."

Switch -- a grime artist whose legal name is Sami Chokri -- had accused Sheeran of plagiarizing a hook from his song, "Oh Why," in "Shape of You," claiming they were "strikingly similar."

On Wednesday, Judge Antony Zacaroli said that Sheeran "neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied" "Oh Why" and said there were "differences between the relevant parts" of both tracks, per the BBC. While Zacaroli said there are "similarities between the one-bar phrase," the "similarities are only a starting point for a possible infringement."