Cher won a lawsuit to withhold her share of royalties from Sonny and Cher's songs.
The singing superstar's lawsuit against Mary Bono ultimately ended with a ruling in her favor.
The decision over royalties for “I Got You Babe” and other hits came after a federal court ruled that Mary Bono should continue to pay Bono her 50 percent share under the former couple's decades-old divorce settlement.
More than 20 years after Sonny's death, Mary claims she no longer has to pay royalties to Cher thanks to a so-called release right in copyright law – a provision that allows songwriters and their heirs to regain intellectual property rights decades after they've given them up.
But in a ruling handed down this week, the judge ruled that those rules do not supersede Sonny and Cher's 1978 divorce settlement, which gave Cher a permanent 50 percent of publishing revenues from songs written before the couple separated.
The ruling means that Cher will continue to receive publishing royalties from songs she co-wrote with Sony, including “The Beat Goes On” and “Baby Don't Go.”
Wednesday's ruling said more than $400,000 (£315,000) in royalties owed to Cher has accumulated since the dispute began.
Sonny and Cher began performing together in 1964 and married in 1967.
The couple separated in 1974 and their divorce was finalized in 1978.
The deal meant that Sony retained the rights to the music, but Cher was entitled to half of all publishing royalties in perpetuity.
Bono died in a skiing accident in 1998.