The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Robert Plant and Jimmy Page did not infringe on Randy Wolfe's copyright on his group's song "Taurus," performed by Spirit, Reuters reported.
Wolfe took the stage under the name Randy California. He died in 1997 by drowning, but a trustee for the estate sued Led Zeppelin saying they used Wolfe’s song for the iconic “Stairway to Heaven” opening.
The suit originally was filed in 2014, NBC News reported.
The trustee’s lawyer, Francis Malofiy said he may continue to fight and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Obviously, the court got it wrong. This is a big loss for creators, those who copyright laws are meant to protect," Malofiy said, according to Reuters.
Wolfe's trustee, Michael Skidmore, said the two songs have similar chord progressions. Skidmore said that Page may have written the Led Zeppelin song after hearing Taurus after the two bands toured together, Reuters reported.
The judges said that "a four-note sequence common in the music field is not the copyrightable expression in a song," NBC News reported.
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