SINGER Ed Sheeran has won a High Court battle over whether his 2017 hit Shape of You copied another artist’s song.

The judge ruled today that the popular song did not copy another artist's track.

Sheeran and his Shape Of You co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, denied ripping off the 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri.

Chokri, a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch, and his co-writer Ross O’Donoghue, claimed an “Oh I” hook in Shape Of You is “strikingly similar” to an “Oh Why” refrain in their track.

The Shape Of You co-authors launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue’s copyright.

In July 2018, Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue issued their own claim for “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement”.

During an 11-day trial in London last month, Sheeran denied he “borrows” ideas from unknown songwriters without acknowledgement and insisted he “always tried to be completely fair” in crediting people who contribute to his albums.

The singer told the court he was trying to “clear my name” and denied using litigation to “intimidate” Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue into abandoning the copyright dispute.

In the ruling on Wednesday, Mr Justice Zacaroli concluded that Mr Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from Oh Why when writing Shape of You.