{"id":10806,"date":"2026-05-28T05:57:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/p-funk-lawsuit-between-george-clinton-bernie-worrell-heirs-gets-trial\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T05:57:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:57:02","slug":"p-funk-lawsuit-between-george-clinton-bernie-worrell-heirs-gets-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/p-funk-lawsuit-between-george-clinton-bernie-worrell-heirs-gets-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"P-Funk Lawsuit Between George Clinton, Bernie Worrell Heirs Gets Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tAn appeals court has ruled that George Clinton must face a trial to determine whether a portion of the Parliament-Funkadelic catalog is co-owned by the heirs of late keyboardist Bernie Worrell.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn September, a federal judge in Detroit threw out the lawsuit brought by Worrell\u2019s widow after determining that the statute of limitations had long expired. But the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that dismissal on Wednesday (May 27), holding that it\u2019s up to a jury to decide whether the claims are timely or not.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThe estate has successfully pointed to facts potentially rendering this the rare case in which a copyright-ownership claim may be brought a half-century after-the-fact,\u201d wrote a panel of three appellate judges in the ruling, obtained by Billboard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dispute stems from a 1976 contract between Worrell and Clinton, in which the keyboardist released his ownership stake in the P-Funk masters in exchange for recorded royalties. This led to numerous court battles over the years about how to properly split these royalties, both during Worrell\u2019s life and after his death from lung cancer in 2016.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pivotal moment came in one such lawsuit in 2020, when Clinton\u2019s attorneys claimed for the first time that the 1976 deal was null and void because Clinton never signed it. This led the Worrell estate to try a new tack and file the current lawsuit, which alleges that Worrell never stopped owning his share of the masters in the first place.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the Sixth Circuit, it remains unclear whether the statute of limitations for these claims expired decades ago or only began running in 2020. However, the judges said a trial is only appropriate on the songs expressly covered in that contract \u2014 those created between 1976 and 1979 \u2014 and not the entire catalog from Worrell\u2019s time in P-Funk between 1969 and 1981.<\/p>\n

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\n\tClinton\u2019s lawyers had separately argued that the case should be thrown out because there\u2019s insufficient evidence of Worrell co-creating these P-Funk songs. The Sixth Circuit rejected this too on Wednesday, saying there\u2019s clearly enough fodder for a jury to decide otherwise.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c<\/strong>To start, we need look no further than Clinton\u2019s own admissions. He recognized in this litigation that Worrell \u2018radically charted the course of emerging keyboard technology during the golden age of analog synthesis,\u2019 and that he brought to the table a \u2018sonic stew\u2019 including \u2018perfect pitch and a well-honed facility with a classical canon,\u2019\u201d wrote the panel. \u201cThese statements contradict any suggestion that Worrell was just a session player or hired hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe case will now head back down to the federal district court to prepare for a trial, unless a settlement is reached. The Worrell estate\u2019s lead lawyer, Richard Busch<\/strong>, said in a statement that the Sixth Circuit\u2019s ruling \u201cis a great step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBernie Worrell was the heart and soul of Parliament-Funkadelic but had to spend years of his life chasing Mr. Clinton for what he believed Mr. Clinton owed him,\u201d added Busch, who argued the appeal. \u201cWhile he is no longer with us, Bernie\u2019s loving wife Judie continues to fight for Bernie\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tClinton\u2019s attorney, Jim Allen<\/strong>, said in his own statement, \u201cWe respectfully disagree with the Sixth Circuit\u2019s decision and believe it requires some unusually large leaps in logic, metaphysics and precedent to transform a disputed, judicially-invalidated 1976 agreement into a springboard for copyright claims fifty years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAllen emphasized, however, that the ruling \u201cis extraordinarily narrow\u201d and allows for a trial on only \u201ca tiny fraction of the decades-long body of work George Clinton created and led.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe also look forward to finally litigating this case in a courtroom rather than through the fog of mythology, revisionist history and shadow-boxing conducted by interests that have been hovering around the P-Funk business empire for decades without ever quite wanting to step fully into the light,\u201d added Allen. \u201cThe Mothership keeps flying. Trial is next. We will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tClinton is separately suing Universal Music Group (UMG) for freezing his royalties amid the Worrell litigation. That case remains pending.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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