Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Appeals
At the end of September in 2018 the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit invalidated the previous decision made by the Central District of California regarding the similarity of Led Zeppelin’s song, “Stairway to Heaven” to the band Spirit’s song, “Taurus”.
The decision made by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was invalidated due to misleading language within jury instructions indicating that certain aspects of musical structure are not protected by copyright law despite them being arranged in an original way. The court also restricted the jury to only hear a sheet music rendition of “Taurus” instead of a sound recording in order to determine similarity between the two musical works.
The IPWatchDog article on the matter, “Ninth Circuit Vacates and Remands ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Copyright Case Over Erroneous and Prejudicial Jury Instructions” can be found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/10/06/ninth-circuit-vacates-remands-verdict-in-stairway-to-heaven-copyright-case/id=101920/