The Beastie Boys have successfully proved you can make an honest living out lawsuits. Last July, they ensured Monster Energy was $1.7 million poorer and they’re coming after their finances once again.
Via Billboard:
The Beastie Boys want to force the maker of Monster Energy drink to pay nearly $2.4 million in legal fees and costs so the rappers’ $1.7 million jury award is not dwarfed by expenses in a copyright violation case, lawyers say.
A Manhattan federal court jury awarded the group most of the $2 million it requested at a June trial, but that was not enough to cover costs that lawyers said were worsened by the actions of the Corona, California-based Monster Energy Co., the musicians’ lawyers said in papers filed in Manhattan federal court.
Monster Loses Bid to Sabotage $1.7M Beastie Boys Verdict
They said more than two years of litigation punctuated by Monster’s failure to engage in good-faith negotiations, an eight-day trial and Monster’s effort to overturn the verdict ran up the legal bill.
“Monster’s tactics significantly increased the costs for Beastie Boys to vindicate their intellectual property rights, such that, absent an award of attorney’s fees and costs, plaintiff’s success at trial would become a Pyrrhic victory,” they wrote in a filing Saturday.
Monster had admitted wrongly using the group’s songs in a video that was online for five weeks. But the beverage maker said at trial it should owe no more than $125,000. The company’s lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.
In case you’re not hip, late group member Adam “MCA” Yauch put in his will that the band should never make a profit off their songs in ads for commercial gain. Since his death in 2012 to cancer, there have been several companies not to honor that wish.
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Photo: PNP/WENN.com
