The estate of Jimi Hendrix has announced plans to contest a $15-million US sale of the guitar legend's hit songs.

At a New York auction Thursday, the rights, title and interest to Purple Haze, Voodoo Child, Foxy Lady and other Hendrix tracks were sold by telephone to an anonymous bidder.

Over the years, the estate of rock legend Jimi Hendrix has fought many legal battles over rights to his music and image.
(Canadian Press)

The auctions division of merchant bank Ocean Tomo, which specializes in managing intellectual property, conducted the sale on behalf of the estate of Michael Frank Jeffrey, Hendrix's one-time manager.

"Whoever bought this bought themselves the right to be a litigant," Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Experience Hendrix, said in an interview with Reuters.

"It will be contested instantly," he said.

Manager died three years after Hendrix

Jeffrey died in a plane crash in 1973, just three years after Hendrix himself died in London. More than a dozen U.K. charities receive funding from Jeffrey's estate.

Ocean Tomo has declined comment on ownership rights to the songs.

Experience Hendrix is headed by the performer's adopted sister Janie Hendrix, who is also executor of his estate.

The company has claimed ownership of all rights to his music and recordings. Over the years, Experience Hendrix has fought several legal battles over the rights to Hendrix's music and image.

For instance, earlier this year, the company was embroiled in litigation with a British company producing Jimi Hendrix albums from recordings that were made outside of his concerts.

Seattle-born rocker was self-taught

James (Jimi) Hendrix was born in Seattle on Nov. 27, 1942. A self-taught musician, Hendrix shot to worldwide fame in 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival. Two years later, he was a headline act at the landmark Woodstock Festival.

The rock icon, known for his blistering rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, a host of hit songs and his experimental onstage improvisations, asphyxiated in his sleep on Sept. 18, 1970, in London. He was 27.

Despite his short life, Hendrix is considered one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time.

With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation