The Beastie Boys have settled a suit that they brought against Monster Beverage Corp. They fought for their copyright, and now they have settled for a sizeable sum.
The Beastie Boys sued Monster Beverage Corp after the company allegedly used five of the 8o’s hip-hop group’s songs without permission. The video that infringed features a mega-mix of the Beastie Boys’ music produced by disc jockey Z-Trip to promote the annual Canadian snowboard competition, “Ruckus in the Rockies”.
The Beastie Boys allege that viewers of the video may be misled into thinking that the group somehow endorsed Monster Energy drinks when the group has long refused to license their music for use in advertising.
The case was brought against Monster by Capitol Records and Universal-Polygram International Publishing, both arms of Vivendi SA, based in France. The plaintiffs agreed to a settlement in a related lawsuit against the beverage company. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Monster dropped its appeal of a $1.7 million jury verdict and an award of $667,849 in legal fees for the Beastie Boys suit when orders dismissing the cases were filed on Thursday.
Monster conceded it was liable for copyright infringement, but the Corona, California-based company thought the damages were too high.
The Vivendi units sued three months after the June 2014 jury verdict.
Two members of Beastie Boys, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond, testified at trial. The third member of the group, Adam “MCA” Yauch, died in May 2012.
There’s no denying that music has a profound influence on popular culture. In an effort to boost sales, advertisers will often license to use snippets of popular music in order to influence potential buyers. At other times, however, companies overlook the important detail of getting permission to make use of such works of intellectual property. Sometimes this is done accidentally, but all too often it is done on purpose in hopes that the rights holders won’t speak up.
If you believe your intellectual property, whether it is music, artwork, writings, programs or any other creative work, is being used without your permission, you must contact the legal offices of Greenberg & Lieberman.
Don’t risk your brand or your IP. Contact us today. We specialize in protecting the trademarks, patents, copyrights and intellectual property rights of our clients. You can reach us by calling our toll free number at (888) 275-2757.
