The lawsuit alleging that Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" copies "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye is going to go on a little bit longer.
U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton announced on Tuesday that he's postponing the jury trial that was set for September until the Ninth Circuit rules in the copyright battle over Led Zeppelin's classic rock staple "Stairway to Heaven."
Law 360 reports that Stanton told the lawyers for Sheeran and the heirs of "Let's Get It On" co-writer Ed Townsend that, "Whatever the Ninth Circuit says, it's going to be damned educational. To proceed in willful ignorance of them is folly."
The Zeppelin case has gone back and forth the past three years, with a Los Angeles jury concluding in 2016 that Zeppelin did not copy "Taurus" bySpirit. Then a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit vacated that verdict, with the full court now mulling the case over. A decision is expected before the end of the year.