Noel Redding Estate Limited & Anor v Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited
[2024] EWHC 128 (Ch)
Noel Redding Estate Ltd & Anor v Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited
22 February 2024
[2024] EWHC 561 (Ch)
High Court
A music company (Sony) tried to stop a lawsuit about old recordings, arguing the claims were too late or based on a wrong legal interpretation. The judge refused, saying the case should go to trial to figure out the facts. The people suing (the Claimants) mostly won and got most of their legal fees paid by Sony.
Key Facts
- •Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited (Sony) sought permission to appeal a judgment in favor of Noel Redding Estate Ltd & Anor (Claimants).
- •The appeal concerned two grounds: performers' property rights and copyright claims.
- •The Claimants' case involved recordings from the 1960s, releases signed in 1973 and 1974, and alleged partnership agreements.
- •Sony argued that the performers' property rights claims were precluded by transitional provisions and that the copyright claim was time-barred.
- •The judge rejected both grounds, allowing the case to proceed to trial.
- •The court also addressed costs, awarding 75% of the Claimants' costs to them.
Legal Principles
Performers' property rights claims under transitional provisions; whether current exploitation is 'in pursuance of' original consents.
Relevant transitional provisions (unspecified in the document)
Copyright claim based on partnership assets; time-barring under partnership dissolution principles.
Marshall v Bullock (unspecified citation in the document)
CPR 44.2 regarding costs allocation.
CPR 44.2
Costs allocation in summary judgment/strike-out applications; consideration of 'winner' and 'loser'.
Berezovsky v Abramovitch [2011] EWCA Civ 484 and [2010] EWHC 1511 (Comm)
Outcomes
Sony's permission to appeal denied.
The judge found no real prospect of success on either ground of appeal. The performers' property rights claim involved a difficult legal point better decided after factual determination at trial; the copyright claim was not properly characterized as a claim to partnership assets.
Claimants awarded 75% of their costs.
The Claimants were deemed the overall winners, having successfully defended the core copyright and performers' property rights claims. A reduction was applied to account for losses on minor issues.
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