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Sony Music again argues that UK legal battle with Jimi Hendrix Experience members should be paused pending US case

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 24 March 2023

Sony Music again this week argued that a copyright dispute with former members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience should be pursued in the courts in New York not London.

Lawsuits have been filed on both sides of the Atlantic, but – Sony’s legal rep said – the US case should be prioritised, because the outcome in that will “save time, money and resources” when it comes to the UK litigation.

This dispute is between Sony Music and the Jimi Hendrix estate on one side, and UK-based companies representing the estates of the other two members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience band – Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell – on the other.

The latter claim they control rights in relation to the Experience catalogue which are being infringed by the Hendrix estate and its music distribution partner, which is Sony Music.

The Hendrix estate counters that, after Hendrix’s death in 1970, both Redding and Mitchell signed agreements via which they basically gave up any copyright or royalty claims in relation to recordings made by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in return for “significant monetary consideration”.

Neither Redding nor Mitchell ever subsequently raised any issues with those agreements while they were still alive.

But the Redding and Mitchell companies argue that the 1970s agreements didn’t actually see the two musicians assign any rights and only related to revenues generated by the recordings at that time, which obviously didn’t include any digital income.

Anticipating that the Redding and Mitchell companies were prepping legal action in the UK, the Hendrix estate and Sony Music filed legal action in New York seeking court confirmation that the 1970s agreements were still in force. The Redding and Mitchell companies then subsequently filed their own lawsuit with the courts in London.

Sony wants the UK case stayed pending the outcome of the US case. The Redding and Mitchell companies say that a legal battle involving British musicians enforcing rights under British copyright law shouldn’t have to wait for a US court to go through the motions.

But Sony and the Hendrix estate say that the dispute here is really about the 1970s contracts, which were signed under American law.

The major also contends that insisting that the UK litigation should advance without obtaining a clear understanding from US courts about the implications of the 1970s contracts within the context of the modern music industry – while concurrently attempting to apply UK and European copyright laws to agreements under US jurisdiction – is neither efficient nor fair.

In the latest court hearing to consider those respective arguments, Sony Music’s legal rep Robert Howe said – according to Law360 – “this is a case where the New York court should be given due deference to proceed with and try the issue about the meaning and effect of the [1970s agreements]”.

“You will have a definitive ruling on what rights the estates have, and that will save time, money and resources here”, he added. “It is throwing sand into the eyes of the court to say that the releases must accept concepts of consent from EU law”.

Meanwhile, the legal rep for the Redding and Mitchell companies, Simon Malynicz, again stressed that digital exploitation of the Hendrix recordings was out of the scope of those old contracts, while adding: “There’s something unattractive about the New York court deciding the copyright claim of citizens of the UK purely because of the convenience of the US parties”.

Judge Edwin Johnson is expected to rule on whether or not the UK case should be stayed by late April.