Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc.

510 U.S. 517 (1994)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Fogerty (D) is a successful musician who wrote the song entitled Run Through the Jungle. P sold the exclusive publishing rights to the predecessors-in-interest of Fantasy, Inc. (P) whom later obtained the copyright by assignment. In 1985, D published a song entitled The Old Man Down the Road. P sued D claiming that the song was merely Run Through the Jungle with new words. The copyright infringement claim went to trial, and a jury returned a verdict in favor of D. D then moved for reasonable attorney fees under 17 U.S.C. 505. The District Court denied that motion finding that P’s suit was not brought frivolously or in bad faith. The Court of Appeals affirmed and declined to abandon 9th Circuit standards for awarding attorney fees. This dual standard awards attorney fees as a matter of course to prevailing plaintiffs but requires prevailing defendants to show that the original suit was frivolous or brought in bad faith. Some courts use the evenhanded standard in which no distinction is made between plaintiffs and defendants. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to address these different standards.