Led Zeppelin is being sued for plagiarism over their signature song "Stairway to Heaven." A Pennsylvania federal judge has ordered sanctions against the attorney preparing to sue Led Zeppelin for "Stairway to Heaven." 

The attorneys claim Led Zeppelin's 1971 rock classic Stairway to Heaven, was lifted from Spirit's 1968 instrumental track "Taurus." The song was written by Spirit guitarist Randy California (born Randy Wolfe) and the band's former bassist Mark Andes. Stairway to Heaven is one of the most covered rock songs. It is estimated to be worth more than $560 million.

Judge Paul Diamond sanctioned Francis Alexander Malofiy, a lawyer representing a trust for the late writer Randy California, claiming that the lawyer behaved "in a flagrantly unprofessional and offensive manner" over the course of a different case. 

The Hollywood Reporter reported that Malofiy recently broutht g a lawsuit against Usher and 19 other defendants for copyright infringement.

Malofy represented Dan Marino, who claimed he wrote the basic melody, chord progressions and tempo for the Usher song "Bad Girl." Marino claimed he wrote the song with with his former songwriting partners William Guice and Dante Barton, They are also named in the suit. 

Usher and the defenents were found  not to have acted impoperly in the copyright infringement lawsuit.

According to Led Zeppelin mythology, Jimmy Page wrote the instantly recognizable intro for "Stairway To Heaven" by candlelight in 1970. Lawyers for Spirit are suing Led Zeppelin for plagiarism, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. 

"It's been a long time coming," says Francis Alexander Malofiy, a lawyer representing a trust for the late writer Randy California. "The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on 'Stairway to Heaven.'"

This isn't the first time Led Zeppelin has been hit with plagiarism charges. The band had to change the songwriting credits on "Whole Lotta Love," "The Lemon Song" and "Dazed and Confused" after similar legal action was taken.

According to multiple published reports, Malofiy will seek an injunction against the release of Led Zeppelin's upcoming release of the remastered "Led Zeppelin IV" and also file a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Led Zeppelin and Spirit shared the bill at four concerts between 1968 and 1969. Businessweek claims Spirit played "Taurus" during the shows. According to repots, Led Zeppelin played a medley that included the Spirit song "Fresh-Garbage" on their first U.S. tour. Spirit had a hit with "I Got a Line on You."

Speaking of an earlier plagiarism charge, Jimmy Page recently told The New York Times that Led Zeppeling credited Willie Dixon for "Whole Lotta Love" because "Within the lyrics of it, there's [Dixons's] "You Need Love," and there are similarities within the lyrics. Now I'm not pointing a finger at anybody, but I'm just saying that's what happened, and Willie Dixon got credit. Fair enough."

Dr Charles Fairchild, an American author and senior lecturer in popular music who is part Sydney, Australia's Conservatorium of Music explained to Fairfax Media that he heard a similarity between the songs in "about 10 seconds" of music. But Fairchild thinks the claim is "unlikely to succeed."

"The obvious and only similarity between them is the finger-picked guitar passage that starts off the guitar playing in both songs," Fairchild says. "In the [Spirit] version, it starts at 0:43 and in Led Zeppelin's it starts off the track. It is that easy, slow descending figure that sounds like a few slow steps down to a nice resting point. This constitutes three measures of music in both songs, which in both cases takes up about 10 seconds or so. However, the two songs go off in completely different directions after this.

"It seems to me that anyone claiming to have been the first person to have ever written this passage is making quite an ambitious claim. This passage is little more than a stock standard chord progression whose origins would be very difficult to determine. It also happens to be a very easy and satisfying thing to play on any guitar in standard tuning. There are probably a lot of other versions of it out there that would be equally similar."

Reissues of "Led Zeppelin," "Led Zeppelin II" and "Led Zeppelin III" are due in stores on June 3rd.