Judge Denies Marvin Gaye Family's Request for Pharrell and Robin Thicke to Pay Their Legal Fees
The Gaye family will have to foot the bill for the attorneys they hired to take their "Blurred Lines" fight to a jury.
In a March hearing, U.S. District Court judge John A. Kronstadt tentatively ruled that he would not award legal fees to Marvin Gaye's heirs and on Tuesday he made it official. After a March 2015 trial, the jury sided with the Gayes, finding Pharrell Williams' and Robin Thicke's hit “Blurred Lines” infringed on Gaye's “Got to Give It Up,” and awarded the family $7.4 million.
Kronstadt later dialed that award back to $5.3 million in damages plus 50 percent of the song’s future royalties, and now he's denying much of the $3.5 million the Gayes wanted to add to that tab.
"The Gaye Parties have not shown that an award of attorney’s fees is warranted," Kronstadt wrote in his decision. "Beyond the success on the merits, little else supports their position. This case presented novel issues. How they would be determined was not, even with hindsight, something that was clear."
