MCA Wins Ruling on Music Rights

Seagram Co.’s MCA Records Inc. won a legal fight over the rights to a historic collection of rhythm and blues music, after the Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal by a private European music company.

The European company, Charly International Holdings Inc., challenged a federal appeals court ruling that the firm and its affiliates had violated MCA’s trademark rights by marketing records with music from the “Chess Masters” collection of more than 25,000 R&B; recordings made between 1940 and 1970.

Charly and its affiliates had been ordered to pay $8.4 million in damages to MCA for unauthorized sale of recordings using the Chess trademark.

Charly, which has operations in Switzerland, Britain, Denmark, Panama and other countries, challenged a California federal trial court’s jurisdiction to consider the dispute. The company--which says it had acquired rights to use the Chess trademark--argued that it had only minimal sales in California.

The court had sided with MCA’s argument that Chess records were sold in California. One of the Chess catalog’s songs also appeared on the soundtrack album for the motion picture “Crying Game,” which was sold in the United States.