The following report is courtesy of Mike Lewis from Seattlepi.com:

Competing JIMI HENDRIX family factions squared off again Tuesday, this time in federal appeals court over a technical legal fight over who, if anyone, owns the "publicity rights" associated with the long-dead rock star.

Under questioning from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, plaintiff's attorney Brad Hudson called the case a choice between state laws: Washington's, where the company controlling most Hendrix assets is based; or New York, the guitar hero's official residence when he died in a London apartment in 1970.

Hudson, representing Experience Hendrix LLC, is seeking Washington's more restrictive interpretation that grants stronger post-death publicity rights to those who inherit an estate.

Conversely, New York only recognizes publicity rights -- quasi property rights associated with a person's image, signature or name or voice -- while a person remains alive.

The defendant, The James Marshall Hendrix Foundation, is seeking the looser New York standard.

At stake is the right to use Hendrix's image in a limited way.

"Whatever happened in New York has no effect on this right," Hudson argued.

Months ago, a lower court had ruled otherwise, saying that New York's law prevailed. The decision favored the foundation, a small group that includes Leon Hendrix, Jimi's half brother, who had been advertising a fundraiser using the famous Hendrix image.

Experience Hendrix had sued in 2003 to stop the advertising.

Since then, the fight has seesawed in court with both sides alternately dropping and resuming the fight as the legal landscape changed.

Read more here.