Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. | |
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Argued December 8, 1993 Decided March 1, 1994 | |
Full case name | John Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. |
Citations | 510 U.S. 517 (more) 114 S. Ct. 1023; 127 L. Ed. 2d 455; 29 U.S.P.Q.2d 1881 |
Case history | |
Prior | Fantasy, Inc. v. Fogerty, 664 F. Supp. 1345 (N.D. Cal. 1987); affirmed, 984 F.2d 1524 (9th Cir. 1993); cert. granted, 509 U.S. 903 (1993). |
Holding | |
In copyright suits, prevailing defendants receive attorney's fees solely at the court's discretion, just as prevailing plaintiffs do. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Rehnquist, joined by Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg |
Concurrence | Thomas |
Laws applied | |
17 U.S.C. ยง 505 |
Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., 510 U.S. 517 (1994), was a United States Supreme Court case that addressed the standards governing awards of attorneys' fees in copyright cases. The Copyright Act of 1976 authorizes, but does not require, the court to award attorneys' fees to "the prevailing party" in a copyright action. In Fogerty, the Court held that such attorneys'-fees awards are discretionary, and that the same standards should be applied in the case of a prevailing plaintiff and a prevailing defendant.