Paul McCartney, one-fourth of the Fab Four, filed a lawsuit against Sony/ATV Music Publishing yesterday in an attempt to regain the rights to Beatles hits that he either wrote or penned with John Lennon. McCartney is making the argument that the 1976 Copyright Act should provide him the ability to reclaim ownership of Beatles songs from Sony/ATV in 2018. However, industry legal experts say his chance of wrestling back the rights to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and other classics are slim. A recent decision by a court in the UK involving Duran Duran, found in favor of a Sony/ATV subsidiary that sued Duran Duran members for breach of contract when they tried to reclaim rights to their songs.
The lawsuit is the latest move in McCartney’s decades-long pursuit of the rights, which he lost out in a bidding war against Michael Jackson who shelled out $41.5 million to acquire the ATV catalog. Sony bought out the King Of Pop’s 50% stake for $750 million from his. McCartney began sending Sony/ATV “termination notices to reclaim his copyright interests in his musical compositions” in October 2008 to lead up to the Judgement Day on Oct. 5, 2018, beginning with the rights to “Love Me Do,” according to the court documents.
