[1][2] It is perhaps best known for having similarities with the 1971 Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven", in which guitarist Jimmy Page used an opening acoustic guitar arpeggio bearing a resemblance to the instrumental without any legal permission from the band.
In the liner notes to the 1996 reissue of Spirit's debut album, Randy California wrote: People always ask me why "Stairway to Heaven" sounds exactly like "Taurus", which was released two years earlier.
"[7][8] In April 2016, California Central District Court Judge Gary Klausner ruled that there were sufficient similarities between the songs to call for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, credited as co-writers of "Stairway to Heaven", to stand trial by jury for copyright infringement.
[12] The trial concluded on June 23, 2016, with the jury, after one hour of deliberation, finding that Led Zeppelin was not guilty of copyright infringement,[13] determining that while Plant and Page had access to "Taurus", the song's riff was not "intrinsically similar" to the opening of "Stairway to Heaven.
[17] In October 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case, leaving the Ninth Circuit's decision in place and effectively ending the dispute.