attorney`s fees

[joselopez]

If i get sued over copyright infringement and i win, do they have to pay my attorney`s fees?

thanks.

[AndyJ]

I can do no better than quote the Civil Procedure Rules 1998:

“If the Court decides to make an order about costs –
(a) the general rule is that the unsuccessful party will be ordered to pay the costs of the successful party; but
(b) the Court may make a different order.”

In other words, if you successfully defend an allegation of copyright infringement, and did nothing to bring it on yourself by your actions (or negligence) then you would normally expect your costs to be paid by the claimant.
Please be aware that the CPR 1998 only apply to courts in England and Wales, although the principle is largely similar in Scotland and the USA.. The fact that you used the word 'attorney' makes me suspect that you may talking about a jurisdiction other than England and Wales.

[joselopez]

Thanks for your reply, am specially interested in the USA, however, with the internet going global, anything can be distributed around the world verry easily now.

[AndyJ]

Hi Jose,
I don't know enough about the detail of how the system on fees etc works in the US to be able to advise you, but there are plenty of websites and blogs run by US attornies who could probably advise you. Here are a couple of places you could try:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/web_resources/web_sites.html
http://williampatry.blogspot.com/
As you say, the fact that the internet crosses all international boundaries does widen the scope for a claimant to choose the jurisdiction in which to fight his case, although if the respondent is not a resident/citizen of the same jurisdiction and has no assets within that jurisdiction, a court there is pretty powerless to impose a settlement. Obviously there is no equivalent to extradiction for civil matters.