IP Litigator published an analysis by Ira Sacks and Evelina Gentry of the copyright case involving Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” song, which spanned six years in court.
“Nearly 40 years after Led Zeppelin released Stairway to Heaven— viewed by many as one of the greatest rock songs of all time—Led Zeppelin was sued for copyright infringement. The estate of guitarist Randy Wolfe, who composed Taurus in 1968, claimed that Led Zeppelin and its guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant copied portions of it. After a six-year-long court battle, the en banc Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Court”) upheld a jury verdict in favor of Led Zeppelin finding that the two songs are not substantially similar. Additionally, in a decision that will broadly impact the music industry, the Court overturned the so-called “inverse ratio rule,” a precedent that has governed copyright cases in the Ninth Circuit for the last 43 years.”