Hear my trial a comin’: Sony’s appeal dismissed in Jimi Hendrix record rights dispute

Sony Music has lost its appeal in the long-running claim on the copyright and performance rights of 1960s guitar legend Jimi Hendrix’s bandmates, bass guitarist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

In Noel Redding Estate Limited and Anor v Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited, the Court of Appeal dismissed attempts by the record company to strike out Redding and Mitchell’s claims for declarations as to the ownership of, and relief for infringement of, copyright and performers’ rights in recordings by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. 

A previous application contesting jurisdiction had been dismissed by the High Court.

In this latest judgment, Lord Justice Arnold, with whom Lord Justice Birss and Lord Justice Newey agreed, noted: ‘The claimants commenced these proceedings as long ago as 4 February 2022. Procedural issues, including an unsuccessful jurisdictional challenge by Sony, mean that they have not yet progressed beyond disclosure.’

Sony’s latest appeal was on two grounds, that the judge was wrong to reject Sony’s contention that the claim for infringement of performers’ rights is precluded by transitional provisions contained in section 180(3) the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and regulation 27(2) of the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, and that the judge was wrong to reject Sony’s contention that the copyright claim against it is statute-barred as being a claim in respect of partnership assets.

The case centres on three studio albums released before Hendrix’s death in 1970. Redding died in 2003 and Mitchell in 2008. The claimants, on behalf of the musicians’ estates, argue they now own a share of the sound recording copyrights and performers’ rights in relation to the albums Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland. They argue Sony’s exploitation of the recordings in the UK infringes their shares of the copyrights and the performers’ property rights.

Sony contends that the worldwide copyright in the recordings is owned by two LLCs – Experience Hendrix LLC and Authentic Hendrix LLC. Redding and Mitchell, when entering into an exclusive recording agreement, ‘consented not only to the making of the master sound recordings of their performances, but also to their subsequent commercial exploitation through the manufacture and sale of vinyl records’.

Referring to Sony’s first ground of appeal, Lord Justice Arnold said he could not accept Sony’s argument that Redding and Mitchell exhausted their rights as section 180(3) of the Copyright and Designs and Patents Act 1988 is to protect ‘parties who rely upon such consents from infringing the broader rights subsequently conferred by Part II of the 1988 Act’, and that the section ‘has nothing to do with exhaustion of rights’.

Considering Sony’s second ground, the judgment said the judge was correct to hold that the claimant’s copyright claim was not statute-barred by section 23 of the Limitation Act 1980 as ‘it is not an action for an account’ but ‘a remedy for the tort of copyright infringement’. The claim is a claim for copyright infringement, the judgment added and ‘not a claim to a share of partnership assets’.

Lawrence Abramson of Keystone Law, who represented the estates, said: ‘Hopefully we can now obtain some justice for the families of Noel and Mitch. No one is denying that Jimi Hendrix was one of the greatest guitarists of all time, just as Freddie Mercury was a great singer. But neither of them made their recordings alone. It has never been suggested that Brian May, John Deacon nor Roger Taylor should not have participated in Queen’s success so why should Noel and Mitch lose out from the success of the Jimi Hendrix Experience?’

The case will now proceed to trial in December.