LOS ANGELES - A US jury found Thursday that British rock group Led Zeppelin did not steal the intro to their signature track “Stairway to Heaven” from a long-defunct Los Angeles rock band. The jury in federal court in Los Angeles rejected claims by songwriting duo Robert Plant and Jimmy Page that they had no access to “Taurus,” by the 1960s rock band Spirit.

But the panel of four men and four women said there was no proof that the two songs were sufficiently similar for Spirit’s copyright to have been breached. Plant and Page denied plagiarizing the melancholic guitar progression of their classic 1971 song from “Taurus,” an instrumental track from Spirit’s debut album, written four years earlier.

Both were present as the verdict was read out, shortly after Judge Gary Klausner had agreed to a request by the jury to hear acoustic guitar renditions of “Taurus” and “Stairway” played side-by-side for a final time.

It was the culmination of a seven-day trial in the case brought by Michael Skidmore, the trustee and friend of Spirit guitarist Randy California, who long maintained he deserved credit for “Stairway” but drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.