In a case originating in D. Maine, an individual songwriter successfully sued a number of defendants for using his song in commercials without his consent. Against a set of defendants who did not settle, the plaintiff was awarded $10,000 in damages and approximately $100,000 in attorneys fees. Defendant appealed the fees. After staying the case to quickly deal with a jurisdictional issue (attorneys fees in copyright cases may be awarded as part of costs, which in turn may cause issues with appellate jurisdiction prior to a final order) the First Circuit upheld the award. It rejected arguments that the award was unreasonable (citing the lower court’s methodical following of the Lodestar method) and that the fee award was disproportionate from the damages (citing the purpose of the Copyright Act to encourage artistic expression). It didn’t hurt the plaintiff’s cause that the defendant had engaged in “quixotic” tactics and the case was “the litigation equivalent of hand-to-hand combat.” For a good read of how overly aggressive litigation tactics can lead to a large fee award in a copyright case, I commend this to your reading.
Spooner v. Een, Inc., 10-2393 (1st Cir. July 5, 2011)