Ed Sheeran settles copyright suit over hit song Photograph

Ed Sheeran has settled the copyright suitbrought by two songwriters over his hit song Photograph.

The Hollywood Reporter reports court papers were filed Friday, but termsof the settlement are not known. The case has now been dismissed.

Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard filed a lawsuit last June seekinga jury trial and damages in excessof $20 million US, as well as royalties from the song.

They pair had claimedPhotographwas "note-for-note copying" of theirsong Amazing,which had been recorded by Matt Cardle, the winnerof the British version of The X Factorin 2010.

The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed last year in U.S. federal court by the twoCalifornia-based musicians: Harrington, a songwriter and producer, and Leonard, a songwriter signed to Harrington's company HaloSongs.

In documents that included musical note comparison and chord breakdowns of the two songs, the duo claimed thePhotograph chorus shares 39 identical notes withAmazing,saying the similarities are "instantly recognizable to the ordinary observer."

Sheeran on top

Grammy-winning Sheeran, 25, has become one of UK's top-selling artists in the past two years, and has written and co-written tracks for colleagues such as One Direction, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. Photographwas the fifth single from Sheeran's breakout 2014 albumx(pronounced "multiply").

It's not the first time the British singer-songwriter has been accused of releasing tracks that sound like others.

In 2016, heirs of the co-songwriter behind MarvinGaye'sLet's Get it On accused Sheeranof copying elements of the classic in his Grammy-winning trackThinking Out Loud. A federal judge dismissed the case in February.

More recently, Sheeranexpanded the list of writers on his current hit Shape of You, adding the names of the songwriters behind TLC's classic trackNo Scrubs, after fans noted similarities between the two songs.