A dispute over the rights to Jimi Hendrix’s music has escalated into a transatlantic legal war, with the heirs of his former bandmates filing a new lawsuit in British court against Sony Music Entertainment.
Weeks after Sony and Hendrix’s estate filed a lawsuit in New York federal court, the estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell fired back with a case of their own on Friday (Feb. 4) in London’s High Court of Justice.
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At issue in the dueling lawsuits are the rights to music created by the trio’s Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix’s estate says Redding and Mitchell signed away any rights shortly after the legendary rocker died in 1970; the bandmates’ heirs say those deals were flawed and that they’re owed millions in royalties.
Sony is the exclusive licensee of Hendrix’s music, which is owned by Hendrix Experience LLC and Authentic Hendrix LLC.
Hendrix teamed up with Redding and Mitchell in 1966 to form the Experience. The trio went on to release a number of now-iconic songs before Hendrix’s death, including “All Along The Watchtower,” which spent nine weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and peaked at No. 20.
The current fight kicked off in December, when entities representing the families of Redding and Mitchell sent a cease-and-desist claiming to own a stake in Hendrix’s music and threatening to sue for infringement. The Hendrix estate and Sony responded with a preemptive lawsuit in January, seeking a ruling from a New York federal court that they owe nothing.
The lawsuit argued that Redding and Mitchell sided “broad general releases” and agreements not to sue as part of probate proceedings in the wake of Hendrix’s death – and that both were compensated with “significant monetary consideration” at the time.
Friday’s filing in the UK High Court, a so-called claim form, contained far less detail than a typical American legal complaint. It merely said that Redding and Mitchell’s heirs want a ruling that they have an ownership stake in the music, that those rights have been infringed, and an assessment of damages.
According to the cease-and-desist letter sent by Redding and Mitchell, those agreements are either unenforceable or do not apply, thanks to a variety of legal limitations that they say Sony and the Hendrix estate have glossed over. Those limits will be the central dispute of the impending litigation.
Now that lawsuits have been filed on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s unclear where the dispute will ultimately be litigated. The New York case was filed first, and Hendrix’s estate proceedings took place in New York courts, including the execution of the release agreements at the center of the case.
An attorney for the Hendrix estate and Sony did not return a request for comment. The attorney for the Redding and Mitchell heirs declined to comment.