The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a Florida real estate broker’s petition for review of a lower court ruling that he was not entitled to attorney fees after a copyright infringement lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed. The case, involving John Abdelsayed and his company Trends Realty USA Corp., centered on claims made by Affordable Aerial Photography Inc. over alleged use of a copyrighted photograph on the brokerage’s website.
Abdelsayed and his company sought to collect legal fees under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68, which allows for fee awards when a settlement offer is more favorable than the judgment that follows, and under the Copyright Act’s cost-shifting provision. However, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Abdelsayed, holding that Rule 68 only applies in cases where a judgment has been obtained for an amount less favorable than a defendant’s settlement offer. The court noted that it does not apply when a defendant prevails outright.
In their petition to the Supreme Court, Abdelsayed and Trends Realty argued that a circuit split existed on whether a preclusive judgment is required for a defendant to be deemed a prevailing party. Some circuits have ruled that a defendant who wins, even without a final judgment, can still be considered a prevailing party if the lawsuit ends without altering the legal relationship between the parties. Abdelsayed contended that this view was consistent with “more than a century of history” before the 2001 Buckhannon decision, which changed how courts view prevailing parties.
