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A federal court in California ruled that a Copyright Act attorney fees provision applied to post-arbitration proceedings that occurred in connection with a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement.
In Brayton Purcell LLP v. Recordon & Recordon, No. C-04-4995, 2007 WL 1462365 (N.D. Cal. May 18, 2007), Brayton sued Recordon for copyright infringement. During a settlement conference, the parties agreed to submit the dispute to binding arbitration.
The arbitrator awarded damages and attorney fees to Brayton. The Court confirmed the award over Recordon's objection. Brayton subsequently filed a motion for post-arbitration fees and costs. This motion raised the question of whether the Copyright Act's provision for attorney fees–which allows a party to recover attorney fees for "any civil action [there]under"–applied to the post-arbitration proceedings.
The Court held that the provision for attorney fees applied to the post-arbitration proceedings, reasoning that the case remained a "civil action" under the Copyright Act since there was no dismissal prior to arbitration and no independent proceeding to confirm the award. However, as the Court explained, its analysis might have differed if the parties had stipulated to dismissal as part of their post-dispute arbitration agreement.
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