Jeff Kobulnick Quoted in Law360 on Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley

Jeff Kobulnick was recently asked by Law360 to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley and discuss attorney fee awards in copyright cases. Jeff’s comments can be found below.

“The court’s ruling today is not inconsistent with precedent in other areas of law when it comes to attorneys’ fees awards, typically predicated on a losing party’s unreasonable conduct. Still, this does raise a question of whether parties like Kirtsaeng who may have the stronger legal position in copyright cases may now be more reluctant to incur the great expense — here, over $2 million — associated with proving their case. This case suggests that if a case is a ‘close call’ warranting an ultimate decision by the Supreme Court neither party should expect to recover its attorneys’ fees and costs, which as a practical matter may yield unintended results that are inconsistent with the cited objectives of the Act.”