The Buena Vista album and film brought songs to new audiences

The High Court in London rejected a claim by Peer International Corporation that a 600-track catalogue was taken over by Cuba's government unlawfully.

The state-run Editora Musical de Cuba (EMC) countered that it had been trying to secure royalties for composers.

Peer said that it was "gratified" this particular allegation was rejected.

"In his judgment, Mr Justice Lindsay has exonerated the company of the serious charges lodged against it by EMC, and in so doing has vindicated our conduct and our reputation," the company said in a statement.

"While the court declined in its discretion to make any award of declaratory relief in the case, given the serious charges made against us, we are gratified by his substantive findings concerning the history and conduct of peermusic in Cuba."

Hundreds of musicians

Many of the songs in question had been forgotten outside Cuba but the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album in 1997, followed by the film of the same name, brought Cuban music back into the limelight.

Mr Justice Lindsay, who had heard the case in Havana and London, ruled there was no evidence to show the composers had been cheated.

He said Peer may still have some rights over songs where the copyright existed for 25 years after the death of the composer, but it had asked for a wide declaration of ownership, which he had to dismiss.

In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, in the midst of a vogue for Cuban music in the United States, Peer signed up hundreds of Cuban musicians.

The judge said there was a long period when Peer, which closed its Cuban offices after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, had no contact with the composers but it did try to re-establish contact in the late 1990s.

Ibrahim Ferrer gained fame with the Buena Vista Social Club

He said the original composers were all dead by then so the company tried to contact their heirs.

After 1998, Peer had tried to make amends over royalties after "38 years of nothing", he added.

Peter Prescott QC, representing Termidor Music Publishers, which was given direct rights from EMC, had told the judge that the contracts involving the 600 songs were all invalid because they were "cunningly contrived".

This had allowed the publishers to get away with paying the composers virtually nothing, he claimed.

But Mr Justice Lindsay said whatever the allegations made by the EMC, he had heard no evidence of the circumstances surrounding the making of any of the original agreements.