June 16, 2016
“Attys React To High Court’s Copyright Attys’ Fees Ruling,” Law360, June 16, 2016
Law360, New York (June 16, 2016, 8:15 PM ET) — The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday decided in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons that to determine the award of attorneys’ fees to successful copyright litigants a heavy emphasis should be placed on whether the case is “objectively unreasonable.” Here, attorneys tell Law360 why the decision is significant.
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Bryan Wheelock, Harness IP & Pierce
Today’s Supreme Court decision in Kirtsaeng, denying attorneys’ fees to Kirtsaeng in his successful defense of a copyright infringement claim by Wiley, properly focuses like a lens the coercive effect of an attorneys’ fee award. Both copyright owners and accused infringers can litigate reasonable positions without minimal risk of a fee award if they turn out to be wrong, while the cost of successfully battling an unreasonable position will likely be shifted to the party who took that unreasonable position.
