In a September 10, 2013 ruling, Judge Paul G. Gardephe granted defendant Hilton Worldwide, Inc.'s motion for attorneys' fees after it secured summary judgment against plaintiff Aqua Creations USA, Inc.'s copyright infringement claims. Aqua Creations had sought copyright registrations on its lighting designs. The Copyright Office denied registration, finding that the lighting designs were useful articles that did not contain any creative authorship separable from the articles themselves. After the Copyright Office denied reconsideration, Aqua Creations started the action against Hilton, alleging copyright infringement of its unregistered lighting designs. Hilton sought a pre-motion conference to dismiss the complaint because it failed "'to identify any separable, non-functional, artistic elements of the designs.'" At the conference, the Court gave Aqua Creations leave to file another amended complaint. That amended complaint, however, suffered from the same defect, and Judge Gardephe granted Hilton's motion to dismiss. Aqua Creations appealed, and the Second Circuit affirmed, relying on the same cases and adopting the same reasoning as Judge Gardephe had in dismissing the amended complaint.Hilton then sought attorneys' fees, for the cost of the appeal only, under the Copyright Act provision giving the Court discretion to award fees to the prevailing party, 17 U.S.C. § 505. Judge Gardephe found that "[b]y the time Aqua filed its appeal, it had been alerted on at least five separate occasions that its copyright claims were defective, because it had not demonstrated that the designs in its light fixtures were separable from the utilitarian and functional aspects of these lamps" -- twice by the Copyright Office, once by Hilton in its letter asking for a pre-motion conference, and twice by the Court in considering the adequacy of Aqua Creations' complaints. The Court thus ruled that "[u]nder these circumstances, this Court cannot find that Aqua's actions in prosecuting the appeal were objectively reasonable." Judge Gardephe awarded fees, but in a reduced amount from that sought by Hilton.
