LUXEMBOURG (Bloomberg) - Sony Music Entertainment can claim the rights in Germany to some of Bob Dylan's most famous songs, including "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Mr. Tambourine Man", the European Union's (EU) highest court said.

The European Court of Justice said Sony Music's copyrighted works can be protected under EU law as long as they were registered in one of the region's nations by mid-1995.

"What matters is whether the work or the subject matter at issue was covered by protection on July 1, 1995 under the national provisions of at least one member state," the EU court ruled yesterday.

The decision goes against German courts where Sony Music had failed to block German music producer Falcon Neue Medien Vertrieb AG from selling albums with Dylan songs released in the US in 1964 and 1965. Falcon had argued Sony Music, owner of the Dylan song rights, had no rights to the disputed songs in Germany because until 1966 the country did not have a relevant copyright law.

"The ruling overall is extremely favorable toward Sony," Ekkehart Schott, the lawyer for Falcon, said in a telephone interview from Karlsruhe, Germany. This is a special case, said Schott, because it affects music recorded on vinyl before 1966 and its impact will not be felt widely by the music industry.

A voicemail left with Sony Music in Germany seeking comment was not immediately returned.

A German court sought the EU tribunal's guidance on whether Sony Music can claim rights under a 2006 EU law that gives copyright protection to songs registered in one of the bloc's 27 nations. Sony argued UK law at the time recognized its US rights to the pre-1966 Dylan songs.

The ruling helps clarify "that the current duration of copyright protection for sound recordings in Europe applies to foreign works" provided they have been protected in at least one EU nation, said Penelope Thornton, a lawyer in the intellectual property group of Lovells LLP.

The Dylan tunes in dispute come from the three albums, "The Times They Are A-Changin'", "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Bringing It All Back Home". They are among the most widely known in the catalog owned by Sony BMG, which is now known as Sony Music Entertainment after Sony Corp. bought out Bertelsmann AG's 50 percent stake in the joint venture last year.

Sony Music, the recording company of Alicia Keys, owns the Arista and Columbia record labels.