Intellectual Property – copyright — attorney fees

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Civil

Intellectual Property – copyright — attorney fees

Where the plaintiff obtained a declaratory judgment that he did not violate the defendant’s copyrights, he is entitled to full attorney fees.

“The Doyle estate’s business strategy is plain: charge a modest license fee for which there is no legal basis, in the hope that the ‘rational’ writer or publisher asked for the fee will pay it rather than incur a greater cost, in legal expenses, in challenging the legality of the demand. The strategy had worked with Random House; Pegasus was ready to knuckle under; only Klinger (so far as we know) resisted. In effect he was a private attorney general, combating a disreputable business practice — a form of extortion — and he is seeking by the present motion not to obtain a reward but merely to avoid a loss. He has performed a public service — and with substantial risk to himself, for had he lost he would have been out of pocket for the $69,803.37 in fees and costs incurred at the trial and appellate levels ($30,679.93 + $39,123.44). The willingness of someone in Klinger’s position to sue rather than pay Doyle’s estate a modest license fee is important because it injects risk into the estate’s business model. As a result of losing the suit, the estate has lost its claim to own copyrights in characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories published by Arthur Conan Doyle before 1923. For exposing the estate’s unlawful business strategy, Klinger deserves a reward but asks only to break even.”

Motion Granted.

14-1128 Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.

Motion for Award of Attorneys’ Fees in an Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Castillo, J., Posner, J.