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9th Circuit Says Copyright Attorney Fees Available in Declaratory Suits
A declaratory judgment action for copyright abandonment can give rise to fee shifting under the Copyright Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in a case of first impression. Doc's Dream LLC v. Dolores Press Inc., 18-56073. The appeal court's decision means that a Georgia minister's company that rebroadcasts the sermons of TV preacher Eugene Scott could be on the hook for up to $307,000 in attorney fees.
"We hold that, even when asserted as a claim for declaratory relief, any action that turns on the existence of a valid copyright and whether that copyright has been infringed invokes the Copyright Act, and thus attorney's fees may be available pursuant to §505," Circuit Judge Consuelo M. Callahan wrote for a unanimous Ninth Circuit panel.
The case is part of a "litany of claims, counterclaims, and motions" over the rights to Scott's televised sermons, which started in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s and eventually were broadcast throughout North America as part of a 24-hour-a-day religious network.
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