Posted: 17/12/2014
Penningtons Manches LLP has successfully acted for the owners of Britannia Row Studios (BRS), along with Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, from whom the current owners take a licence of the studio name, in order to prevent a Mr Phil Harris from infringing its copyright and passing off of a number of items of recording studio equipment and guitars as coming from BRS/Pink Floyd when they do not.
The current studio owners discovered that Mr Harris, a music memorabilia dealer, had sold and offered some items for sale to collectors which he claimed originated from BRS and had been used by Pink Floyd. In order to support the claimed provenance, Mr Harris provided buyers with a copy of a counterfeit letter on BRS letterhead, claiming that the items had been sold by BRS to him in 1998.
Penningtons Manches’ letter of claim led to Mr Harris offering undertakings in which he agreed to cease all his infringing acts and pay its clients’ legal costs.
BRS is one of the longest established names in the audio recording world. The studios have been involved with some of the best known artists of the last 30 years. They were originally set up by Pink Floyd and are, therefore, particularly linked to Pink Floyd and the band’s music.