Opinion
98 Civ. 8286 (LAK)
July 24, 2000
ORDER
Plaintiff moves to fix the amount of attorney's fees and expenses to be recovered for pursuing its copyright claim against the defendants.
The Court has reviewed the parties' submissions carefully. The principal point of contention is whether work properly classified as "general" — i.e., not separable among patent, trademark and copyright contentions — should be allocated 17% or 33% to the litigation of the copyright claim. The difference between the parties is whether the allocation should be based on the proportion of the separate claims for relief pleaded in the complaint accounted for by the copyright claim (1 of 7) instead of the proportion of the types of claims for relief pleaded (patent, trademark and copyright), or one third. While there is no magic to either formula, the Court concludes that plaintiff's estimate is more realistic than defendants'.
The Court has considered all other arguments advanced by both sides. In the exercise of discretion, the Court finds that $25,000 is appropriate compensation to plaintiff for attorney's fees and expenses. Accordingly, plaintiff's motion is granted to the extent that plaintiff shall recover of defendants the sum of $25,000 in fees and expenses on the copyright claim.
SO ORDERED.