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In a filing on Monday with the U.S. District Court in
Manhattan, a lawyer for Sony/ATV said the publisher has never
challenged the validity of McCartney's notices to terminate its
copyrights in the songs, starting in October 2018.
As a result, McCartney's Jan. 18 lawsuit "impermissibly seeks an
advisory opinion on a hypothetical claim" and should be
dismissed for the time being, the lawyer, Donald Zakarin, wrote.
Lawyers for McCartney had no immediate comment on Tuesday.
The rock legend, 74, was outbid by Michael Jackson in 1985 for
the rights to songs credited to McCartney and John Lennon such
as "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude."
These rights were rolled a decade later into Sony/ATV, a joint
venture with Sony Corp <6758.T>. Jackson's estate sold its stake
in that venture to Sony for $750 million last year.
McCartney sued 1-1/2 months after a British court rejected
similar claims against Sony/ATV's Gloucester Place Music unit by
Duran Duran, saying the pop group's contracts were governed by
English law and barred members from reclaiming their songs.
Zakarin said McCartney's claims are also governed by English
law, and that he should wait for Duran Duran to finish its
appeal rather than engage in "forum shopping" in the United
States.
"A dismissal without prejudice now would spare this court the
need to issue a decision that may be unnecessary pending the
outcome of Gloucester while assuring that, if and when a claim
is ever ripe, U.K. law will have been settled," Zakarin wrote.
Revisions to U.S. copyright law in 1976 let authors reclaim song
rights after certain periods of time elapsed.
McCartney wants the court to declare he would not breach any
contract by exercising termination rights. His case could affect
other artists who signed contracts outside the United States.
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos is scheduled to consider
Zakarin's letter at an April 5 conference, ahead of an expected
formal motion to dismiss McCartney's lawsuit.
The case is McCartney v Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC et al,
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.
17-00363.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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