Paul McCartney sues Sony to reclaim Beatles song rights

New York, Jan 19 (IANS) Beatles legend Paul McCartney has filed a lawsuit against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to regain the copyright of many of his compositions for The Beatles in the 1960s and 1970s.

In his lawsuit, filed at a federal court here, McCartney cites The Beatles songs that he and John Lennon jointly created from 1962 to 1971, noting that during that time, they assigned their copyright interests to publishers in exchange for royalties, reports variety.com.

A provision of the Copyright Act allows authors and co-authors to reclaim the copyrights in their works after a set period of time, provided that they serve termination notices on the current rights holder.

One aspect of the law gives authors who transferred their interests in their works before January 1, 1978, the ability to reclaim the rights.

Some of the singles mentioned include "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", "Let it be", "Love me do", "P.S. I love you", "Thank you girl", "Bad to me", "I want to hold your hand" and "All you need is love".

McCartney began to serve termination notices in October 2008. The terminations begin to be effective in 2018.

"For years following the service of the first termination notices, defendants gave no indication to Paul McCartney that they contested the efficacy of Paul McCartney's termination notices," the lawsuit said, according to variety.com.

A spokeswoman for Sony/ATV said in a statement: "Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalog.

"We have collaborated closely with both Sir Paul and the late John Lennon's Estate for decades to protect, preserve, and promote the catalog's long-term value. We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit which we believe is both unnecessary and premature."