September 6, 2025
George Clinton Prevails In Court Battle Over Funk Catalog Rights
Clinton scored a decisive win in federal court after a judge dismissed claims by the late Bernie Worrell’s estate that the Parliament-Funkadelic co-founder was owed co-ownership and royalties on hundreds of classic funk tracks.
George Clinton has secured a legal victory in a long-running battle over ownership of Parliament-Funkadelic’s catalog, after a federal judge dismissed claims that late keyboardist Bernie Worrell should be recognized as a co-creator of the band’s work from the 1970s. The decision, issued Sept. 4 by Judge F. Kay Behm in Detroit, ends a lawsuit filed in 2022.
According to Billboard, the lawsuit was originally filed by Judie Worrell, who manages her late husband’s estate. Bernie Worrell, a key member of Parliament-Funkadelic from 1969 to 1981, died of lung cancer in 2016. His estate had argued he was a joint owner of 264 P-Funk tracks, including classics such as “Flash Light” and “One Nation Under a Groove,” and sought rights to royalties from those songs.
Clinton is widely credited as the singer and frontman of P-Funk.
Judge Behm, however, ruled the case fell outside the statute of limitations for copyright claims, which is three years from the time someone knows their work may have been infringed.
“Unfortunately for plaintiff, Worrell was not reasonably diligent in protecting his alleged co-authorship or ownership rights for decades,” Behm wrote. “Worrell’s ownership claims accrued well before 2020, either when the works were recorded and he was not credited or when Worrell learned that he was not receiving the royalties to which he was allegedly entitled, no later than the late 1980s.”
Clinton’s attorney, Jim Allen, welcomed the decision, telling Billboard he was “pleased that the court brought closure to 50 years of false and malicious accusations.”
“George Clinton is a musical genius, and it is unfortunate that he has had to endure these erroneous allegations for the past several years,” Allen said. “The Lord said, let there be funk — and no pretenders can shut it down or take it away. To all of the P-Funk family, we remain One Nation Under a Groove.”
The Worrell estate did not respond to requests for comment.
The ruling is the latest chapter in decades of lawsuits between Clinton and Worrell. The two first clashed in the 1980s over sound recording royalties, and Worrell’s estate pursued multiple lawsuits after his death, including a 2019 case tied to a 1976 contract. That contract was later deemed invalid because Clinton never signed it, which led to the latest ownership dispute.
Clinton, meanwhile, has fought several other legal battles surrounding his catalog, most prominently with former agent Armen Boladian of Bridgeport Music, which controls 90% of Clinton’s publishing rights. Clinton sued Boladian again earlier this year, accusing Bridgeport of using “fraud and deception” to seize control of his catalog, claims Boladian has denied.
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