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      *A company owned by the family of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is claiming ownership of his songs and plans to sue the private bidder who paid $15 million for the rights in a recent auction.

      "Whoever bought this bought themselves the right to be a litigant," Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Experience Hendrix told Reuters. The Seattle-based company is owned by members of Hendrix's family. "It will be contested instantly," he added.     

      According to Reuters, the rights, title, and interest to songs including "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," "Voodoo Child," and "Foxy Lady," were sold over the telephone in New York by the estate of Michael Frank Jeffrey, Hendrix's one-time manager.     

      Jeffrey was killed in a plane crash three years after Hendrix died suddenly in 1970. Fourteen charities based in the United Kingdom, including the Asthma Research Council, the British Heart Foundation and the Kings College Hospital are the beneficiaries of Jeffrey's estate.     

      Experience Hendrix says it owns all rights to the music, and recordings of the musician. The auctioneer, the auctions division of Chicago-based merchant bank Ocean Tomo, declined to comment on the ownership of rights to the songs.