Beastie Boys Get Permanent Injunction Against Monster

Interesting outcome to a copyright/trademark case. You may remember that last year The Beastie Boys won a major copyright infringement case against Monster Energy drink. Last month, a New York district court granted The Beastie Boys’ request for a full injunction keeping Monster Energy drink not only from ever displaying or distributing the infringing video containing any Beastie Boys’ content, but also ordering Monster Energy drink to destroy all copies of said infringing video.

Here’s the court’s order, and in brief,

For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants the Beastie Boys’ motion for a permanent injunction, limited to the infringing version of Monster’s Ruckus video at issue in this litigation. Specifically, it is hereby ORDERED that:

(1) Monster and Monster’s employees, officers, successors, partners, agents, and assigns are permanently enjoined from reproducing, publicly displaying, distributing, performing, or promoting the version of Monster’s “Ruckus in the Rockies 2012” video that included copyrighted musical compositions and sound recordings owned or controlled in whole or in part by the Beastie Boys or Brooklyn Dust music, and that contained text referring to the Beastie Boys and to one of the group’s members.

(2) By March 6, 2015, Monster shall remove the infringing video from all places where it has been stored and/or made available by Monster, shall destroy any and all copies of that video, and shall certify to such removal and destruction in a written undertaking filed with the Court. Counsel for Monster, however, are authorized to retain a copy of the video for purposes of representing Monster in this litigation and any appeal, and are at liberty to make use of the video for purposes of representing Monster’s legal interests.

Tags: appropriation, Art Law, Beastie Boys, commercial use, destruction, injunction, monster drink, music, ny southern district court, video