Beastie Boys awarded $700k legal fees in Monster copyright dispute
Former hip hop band Beastie Boys has been awarded almost $700,000 in legal fees in its copyright dispute with drinks company Monster Energy, though the sum is less than the $2.3 million the band had originally requested.
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York awarded the band the legal fees on Monday, June 15 after Monster had “needlessly” prolonged the litigation by attempting to shift the blame for its infringement to a third party.
Last year, the district court awarded the band $1.2 million in damages after finding that a promotional video released by Monster had infringed the band’s copyright. It issued a further fine of $500,000 for Monster’s false endorsement.
Judge Paul Engelmayer, presiding over the latest part of the case, said the legal fees award “should lead future parties either contemplating infringement, or designing corporate protocols with respect to the handling of intellectual property, to think twice before disrespecting others’ copyright interests.”
Following the ruling last year, Beastie Boys had requested more than $2 million in legal costs.
Monster had challenged only the copyright part of the ruling, not the false endorsement aspect.
Engelmayer ruled that Monster was not “unreasonable” in contesting claims that it wilfully infringed the band’s copyright.
Monster’s four-minute video contained clips of the snowboarding event Ruckus in the Rockies, an event it sponsors, with a soundtrack of five Beastie Boys songs, including “Sabotage” and “Pass the Mic”.
The drinks company obtained a re-mix of the band’s songs from musician Z-Trip with his authorisation. In 2011, Z-Trip had agreed a licensing deal with Beastie Boys to use the songs in a re-mixed album.
Monster’s regional marketing director, Nelson Phillips, claimed Z-Trip had said Beastie Boys gave him permission to use the rights to the “underlying songs” in the re-mix. Z-Trip denied this.
In December, the district court rejected Monster’s post-trial motion saying it thought it had obtained the rights in “good-faith”.
Monster had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication, but we will update the story should the company get in touch. Beastie Boys could not be reached for comment.
