On Monday, a federal judge awarded the Beastie Boys far less in attorneys’ fees than they had hoped for. This follows a lawsuit filed by the Beastie Boys against energy drink company Monster Energy Co. for the company’s infringement on Beastie Boys’ songs in a promotional video.
The Beastie Boys had initially requested $2.4 million in attorneys’ fees after their $1.7 million victory over Monster Energy. Instead, the judge’s ruling gave the group $667,000. The judge’s reasoning behind this was that the Beastie Boys chose what the judge called a win-at-any-cost game plan that included legal representation composed of an unusually high proportion of partners. “The court’s review of Sheppard Mullin’s bills suggests that the Beastie Boys opted to pay for, and received, the Cadillac Escalade, not the Honda Civic.”
Monster has since appealed to the Second Circuit from the federal trial court’s June 2014 jury verdict.