The UK Excessive Court docket has dismissed a lawsuit introduced by the estates of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell (the bassist and drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Expertise) towards Sony Music Leisure UK.
The claims involved the copyright possession of, and performers’ property rights in, round 40 studio recordings made by the band between 1966 and 1968.
The judgment, obtained by MBW, might be learn in full right here.
As reported by Reuters in December, Sony had warned at trial {that a} ruling within the claimants’ favor may “throw the music business into chaos”.
The claimants, Noel Redding Property Ltd and Mitch Mitchell Property Ltd, had argued that Redding and Mitchell have been co-owners of the sound recording copyrights and held performers’ property rights arising from their participation within the recordings, and that Sony’s longstanding industrial exploitation of these recordings within the UK constituted infringement.
The recordings embody tracks from traditional albums Are You Skilled, Axis: Daring as Love, and Electrical Ladyland.
The judgment, handed down on Tuesday (April 28) by Mr Justice Edwin Johnson, discovered that the claims failed on three impartial grounds.
Johnson concluded that the copyright was first owned by the band’s producers, Michael Jeffery and Chas Chandler, below the phrases of the unique 1966 Recording Settlement.
He additionally discovered the claims have been barred by settlements reached by Redding and Mitchell within the Nineteen Seventies, through which each musicians signed releases and dropped earlier lawsuits within the New York courts.
The judgment states: “For the explanations set out on this judgment, the Claims fail. In abstract: (1) The Claims fail on the idea of my evaluation of the Recording Settlement. (2) The Claims additionally fail on the idea that they’re precluded by the Releases. (3) The Claims additionally fail on the idea that they’re precluded by the Discontinuances.”
Central to the ruling was Clause 6(i) of the Recording Settlement, which supplied that the producers “shall have” “[t]he copyright all through the world in all sound recordings of performances of musical works by the Artistes.”
The choose discovered that language dispositive: “It’s troublesome to see how this might have been expressed extra clearly.”
On the separate query of performers’ property rights, the choose discovered that the consent given by Redding and Mitchell within the 1966 settlement “was not restricted in time, and was not restricted to any specific strategies for the supply of music.”
The judgment acknowledged the claimants’ case “that each Mr Redding and Mr Mitchell died in relative poverty, having suffered the unfairness and/or injustice of by no means having obtained their correct recognition or reward for his or her distinctive contributions to JHE and the music created by JHE.”
However the choose discovered that questions of equity had “solely a strictly restricted position to play” in construing the settlement.
The case reached trial after Mr Justice Michael Inexperienced rejected Sony’s utility for abstract judgment and strike out in January 2024, discovering the claimants have a “actual prospect of succeeding on their case”.
The Court docket of Attraction dismissed Sony’s enchantment of that call in February 2025, as beforehand reported by MBW.
The trial befell over seven days in December 2025. The claimants have been represented by Simon Malynicz KC and Phillip Johnson, instructed by Keystone Legislation LLP. Sony was represented by Robert Howe KC and Jaani Riordan, instructed by Simkins LLP.
Sony Music Leisure UK exploits the recordings below a sub-licence finally derived from Expertise Hendrix LLC, an organization owned by Jimi Hendrix’s heirs.
MBW has reached out to Sony Music for remark.
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