In the latest development in what has now been a nearly three-year-long dispute, Monster Beverage Corp. will have to foot some of the Beastie Boys’ legal bills in the rap group’s copyright infringement lawsuit against the energy drink powerhouse. In a ruling announced Monday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer awarded the Beastie Boys an additional $668,000 to be paid by Monster, along with the $1.7 million jury ruling in the group’s favor reached last year.
The Beastie Boys didn’t get all they were after in their attempts to recoup their legal expenses. The group’s attorneys had originally sought $2.4 million in legal fees from Monster, writing in a January filing that the company’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.” However, Engelmayer’s opinion was that the group “opted to pay for, and received, the Cadillac Escalade, not the Honda Civic” of legal counsel.
The ongoing battle between the two parties stems from a May, 2012 Monster promotional video entitled “Ruckus in the Rockies”, which featured five Beastie Boy songs without authorization from the group in the immediate aftermath of the death of founding member Adam “MCA” Yauch.