It looks like the war of the Robinson’s is over. Or, at least they appear to have called a truce.
It seems that since February of this year, Smokey Robinson and his ex-wife Claudette, had been lining up to go to court and battle it out over music royalties and copyrights.
Specifically, Smokey sued Claudette earlier this year, claiming that when they divorced in 1986 she was awarded half of all copyrights and royalty rights from songs Smokey wrote between November 1958 to May 1985.
But, there was a twist. You see, Smokey claims that per the 1976 Copyright act, Claudette no longer will have rights to the songs once they are 35 years old.
He had begun terminating her name on the copyrights and will continue as time passes on the rest. Claudette had her lawyer fire off a letter demanding Smokey cease terminating her rights to the music. He sued his ex and asked the court to terminate her rights to his songs.
Claudette later fired back at this lawsuit, claiming Smokey could reclaim his copyrights per the 1976 Copyright act, but she was still entitled to her 50% cut from all of his music created between 1958-1985.
Claudette admits she had no part of writing any of the songs, but per their divorce settlement she was awarded the rights. However, she said that per their deal there is NO termination clause and Smokey can’t cut her out 30 years later.
As we said, the legal battle has been going on for months and the trial was scheduled for February 9, 2015 in Federal Court.
Here’s what happened to precipitate the change of heart by both parties. On October 6, docs were filed by both Smokey and Claudette that noted they both attended a mediation session on Sept.10. The session apparently was productive enough that they now fully expect to reach an amiable settlement and have requested that the trial date and future hearings be taken off the calendar
Read more at https://www.eurweb.com/2014/11/smokey-robinson-and-ex-wife-claudette-drop-lawsuit-over-royalties/#2lSf6crglxcIuP3u.99
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