Intellectual Property Law

Fifth Circuit: Prevailing defendant in file sharing copyright case not entitled to attorney fees

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

On Friday, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court finding denying an award of attorney's fees to a defendant who had been sued for copyright infringement by several recording companies, as part of the industry's ongoing litigation efforts to curb file sharing.  In doing so, the court upheld the notion that, although attorney's fees are awarded routinely to prevailing parties in copyright actions under 17 U.S.C. § 505, recovery of attorney's fees is not automatic and must be reviewed in light of several non-exclusive factors.  

More detail of Virgin Records Am. Inc. v. Thompson after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on January 07, 2008 (boomark / email).