In August, the estate of Randy “California” Wolfe filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in their ongoing case against Led Zeppelin, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a March 2020 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upholding the 2016 trial verdict that found “Stairway To Heaven” was not a copy of “Taurus”. Bloomberg Law Supreme Court reporter Kimberly Robinson tweeted: “#SCOTUS won’t hear copyright dispute over legendary ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ No. 20-142 Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin.”

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Led Zeppelin has won a major decision in the copyright appeal battle over ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict finding the song did not infringe on the 1968 song ‘Taurus’ by the band Spirit. The ruling is also a significant win for the music industry, which has felt itself fighting a losing battle against frivolous copyright suits since the “Blurred Lines” trial in 2015. The court overturned the so-called “inverse ratio rule,” a precedent that has governed copyright cases in the 9th Circuit for the last 43 years. Continue reading →