Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe Beatles‘ Apple Corps Limited is seeking to have a court dismiss a lawsuit over ownership of the footage of the band’s famous 1965 concert at Shea Stadium in New York city, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
In September, a partnership than controls the intellectual property that had been owned by legendary late concert promoter Sid Bernstein sued claiming that Apple Corps and other companies were infringing on its copyright by using the footage which the Sid Bernstein Presents LLC claims it owns the rights to.
In its motion to have the lawsuit dismissed, filed Wednesday in federal court in New York, lawyers for Apple Corps and Subafilms Limited — the company that was granted a copyright on the footage in 1988 — say Bernstein had no control over or input into the filming of the show or the production of the film The Beatles at Shea Stadium, which was first televised in 1967.
The lawyers also note that from the time of the concert through his death in 2013, Bernstein himself never claimed ownership of the film. And a legal memo filed with the court says the contract between Bernstein and Apple Corps’ predecessor company, Nems Enterprises, granted Nems the sole right to film the show and to any receipts from the film.
In addition, the lawyers note that when the company Sid Bernstein Presents submitted a copyright application for the material in July, it was denied because it conflicts with the 1988 copyright and because the company doesn’t have the master tapes.
Segments of the Shea Stadium concert were included in the recent Ron Howard-directed documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years, while footage of the full performance was shown during theatrical screenings of the new movie.
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