In one of the highest profile music-related copyright infringement lawsuits, recording stars Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were slammed with a $7.4 million jury verdict after being accused of plagiarizing their chart topping hit song “Blurred Lines” from Marvin Gaye's 1977 Motown hit “Got to Give it Up.”

One of the unique legal aspects of the case related to the fact that, at the time Gaye's hit song “Got to Give it Up” earned its copyright status, only the written music could be registered as protected. At the time, sound recordings from sheet music were not copyright eligible.

At trial, the battle came down to whether infringement could be gleaned from reading—not listening to—the sheet music from Gaye's Motown hit. One way, of course, that such an infringement could be demonstrated would be through the admission of the accused infringer.