The lawyers who helped bring the song "Happy Birthday" into the public domain will be handsomely rewarded. A judge this week awarded the legal team $4.6 million after last year's successful copyright lawsuit, reports Courthouse News Service. The money will come out of a $14 million class-action settlement being paid by music publisher Warner/Chappell. In the case, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Nelson sued the company after it charged her a $1,500 licensing fee for including the song in her film about its origins. A federal judge ultimately concluded that Warner/Chappell's claim on the copyright of the famous tune was dubious.
US District Judge George King ruled this week that her lawyers deserved $3.85 million for their work, plus a bonus of sorts. "Given the unusually positive results achieved by the settlement, the highly complex nature of the action, the risk class counsel faced by taking this case on a contingency-fee basis, and the impressive skill and effort of counsel, we conclude that a 1.2 multiplier is warranted," wrote King, per Ars Technica. Most of the research into byzantine copyright law was done by attorney Randall Newman, who clocked 2,193 hours at $640 per hour. He and his team are now pushing to free up other songs, including "This Land Is Your Land."
US District Judge George King ruled this week that her lawyers deserved $3.85 million for their work, plus a bonus of sorts. "Given the unusually positive results achieved by the settlement, the highly complex nature of the action, the risk class counsel faced by taking this case on a contingency-fee basis, and the impressive skill and effort of counsel, we conclude that a 1.2 multiplier is warranted," wrote King, per Ars Technica. Most of the research into byzantine copyright law was done by attorney Randall Newman, who clocked 2,193 hours at $640 per hour. He and his team are now pushing to free up other songs, including "This Land Is Your Land."