Legal row over Beatles’ US show

Songs performed by The Beatles at their first concert in the US have been at the centre of copyright litigation in a London court more than 54 years.

Court of Appeal judges produced the latest ruling on the dispute, which relates to The Beatles’ appearance at the Coliseum in Washington DC in 1964. The concert was videotaped and judges were told a decade ago plans were in place to make a documentary, called The Beatles: The Lost Concert, which would feature the video recording.

Music giant Sony, which owns the copyright to eight of the 12 songs performed at the show, sued two firms involved in plans for the documentary, alleging “actual or threatened infringement” of UK, and Us,copyrights.threeyears ago, a High Court judge ruled in Sony’s favour after a trial in London.

Last year the same judge, Mr Justice Arnold, ordered the director of one of the firms involved in the documentary to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of lawyers’ bills run up by Sony.