A copyright infringement lawsuit can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars for an early settlement to well over a million dollars per side at trial. The American Intellectual Property Law Association’s 2023 Economic Survey reported an average of $1.4 million per side to litigate a copyright case through trial when $10 million to $25 million was at stake. Smaller disputes still run into the low six figures when they drag on. Those figures cover attorney time, court fees, experts, and discovery, and they sit on top of any damages a court eventually awards.
What a specific case costs depends on three things: whether the work was registered on time, how far the case travels through litigation, and how aggressively the other side fights. Each one is worth understanding before you file anything.
Registration Comes First, and It Shapes Everything
Federal law bars any infringement suit on a U.S. work until the Copyright Office has either granted or refused registration.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 411 – Registration and Civil Infringement Actions Filing the application isn’t enough. In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com (2019), the Supreme Court confirmed that registration “has been made” only once the Office acts on the application.
Registration itself is cheap: $45 online for a single work by one author, or $65 for the standard application that covers most other situations. Normal processing can take several months. Expedited “special handling” is available for $800 when timing matters.2U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
The timing of registration is the single biggest cost lever in the entire case. To recover statutory damages or attorney’s fees, the work must have been registered before the infringement began or within three months of first publication.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement Miss that window and the suit is limited to actual damages and the infringer’s profits, which must be proven with evidence. That difference changes what the case is worth, which changes what it makes sense to spend.
Attorney Fees Are the Largest Line Item
Copyright litigators typically bill $300 to $800 per hour depending on market and experience. Partners at top intellectual property firms can exceed $1,000 per hour. Some plaintiff-side attorneys take cases on contingency for 30 to 40 percent of the recovery, which removes up-front cost but shrinks the eventual payout.
A dispute that settles before formal discovery often generates $10,000 to $50,000 in legal fees. A case that reaches trial will almost certainly push into six figures and can exceed a million dollars when the issues are complex. The gap between those two outcomes is why nearly every copyright case is dominated by settlement discussions from the beginning.
Filing Fees, Discovery, and Experts
Opening a civil case in U.S. District Court costs $405, made up of a $350 statutory filing fee and a $55 administrative fee.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 1914 – District Court Filing and Miscellaneous Fees Next to everything else, this is trivial.
Discovery is where costs spiral. A single deposition can run $1,000 to $5,000 or more after court reporter charges, transcripts, and room rental. When a case involves large volumes of electronic records, e-discovery vendors may charge tens of thousands of dollars to process and review files.
Experts add another layer. Industry specialists, forensic analysts, and damages experts commonly charge $350 to $500 per hour for review and reports, with higher rates for trial testimony. A copyright case needing multiple experts can accumulate $20,000 to $100,000 in expert costs alone.
What Pushes a Case Cheap or Expensive
The clearest predictor is whether the case settles or goes to trial. Most copyright disputes settle, and resolution during early negotiations or mediation keeps costs a fraction of what trial demands. Each stage that plays out, from written discovery through depositions through summary judgment through trial prep, adds another billing cycle.
Complexity matters almost as much. A straightforward case of someone copying a photograph and posting it to a website is quick to prove. A dispute over whether a song borrows enough from an earlier composition to count as infringement needs musicologists, detailed analysis, and potentially weeks of trial.
The opposing party’s strategy is the wild card. An adversary who files every available motion and contests each discovery request can drive the other side’s bills up dramatically, sometimes as a deliberate tactic to force settlement. There’s no reliable way to predict this up front, which is why experienced copyright attorneys budget a range rather than a single number.
What a Winning Plaintiff Can Recover
Costs only make sense in light of what’s recoverable. A proven infringement can produce three kinds of relief.
Actual damages cover the copyright owner’s financial losses, such as lost licensing fees or diverted sales. On top of that, the court can order the infringer to turn over profits earned from the infringement, as long as those profits aren’t already counted in the actual damages. The owner proves gross revenue; the infringer then has to prove which expenses to deduct and which revenue came from other sources.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 504 – Remedies for Infringement Damages and Profits
Statutory damages, available only when the registration timing rule was met, run from $750 to $30,000 per work at the court’s discretion. The range shifts with intent:
- Willful infringement can push the award up to $150,000 per work.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 504 – Remedies for Infringement Damages and Profits
- Innocent infringement, where the infringer proves no reason to know, can bring the award down to $200 per work.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 504 – Remedies for Infringement Damages and Profits
Each infringed work carries its own statutory range, so a willful infringer hit on five works could theoretically owe up to $750,000 in statutory damages.
Federal courts can also issue temporary or permanent injunctions ordering the infringer to stop using the work, and those orders are enforceable nationwide.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 502 – Remedies for Infringement Injunctions For some owners, shutting down the infringement matters more than any money award.
Does the Loser Pay the Winner’s Legal Bills?
Not automatically. The Copyright Act gives judges discretion to award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to whichever side prevails.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 505 – Remedies for Infringement Costs and Attorneys Fees The registration timing rule applies here too: the work must have been registered before infringement began or within three months of first publication.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement
In Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2016), the Supreme Court held that the objective reasonableness of the losing party’s position deserves substantial weight, though courts also weigh the parties’ motivations and whether a fee award would serve the Copyright Act’s goals.8Justia. Kirtsaeng v John Wiley and Sons Inc, 579 US (2016) A defendant who took a reasonable but losing position is less likely to pay fees than one who pressed a frivolous defense.
Separately, the prevailing party can recover certain specifically identified litigation costs, such as clerk fees, deposition transcripts, copy costs, witness fees, and interpreter costs.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 1920 – Taxation of Costs These won’t come close to covering total expense, but they reduce the sting. The winner must file a bill of costs to collect them.
Cheaper Paths to the Same Result
Federal court isn’t the only option, and often it shouldn’t be the first.
Copyright Claims Board
Since 2022, the Copyright Claims Board has handled smaller disputes inside the Copyright Office. Filing a claim costs $100, paid in two installments of $40 and $60.10U.S. Copyright Office. About the Copyright Claims Board The maximum award is $30,000 total per proceeding.11U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Claims Board Handbook – Damages
You don’t need a lawyer, discovery is limited, and most cases proceed without depositions or live testimony. A “smaller claims” track for disputes under $5,000 is decided by a single officer rather than the three-member board.12U.S. Copyright Office. Frequently Asked Questions – Copyright Claims Board
The catch is that CCB participation is voluntary. A respondent has 60 days after being served to opt out, which ends the proceeding and sends the dispute back toward federal court if the owner wants to continue.13U.S. Copyright Office. I’m Not Sure If I Want to Participate A respondent who ignores the paperwork gets no such out; the case moves forward without them.
DMCA Takedown Notice
For online infringement, a DMCA takedown notice is free and often effective. A copyright owner sends a written notice to the service provider identifying the infringing material, and the provider is required to remove or disable access to it.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online The notice must identify the copyrighted work and the infringing material, include a good-faith statement that the use isn’t authorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the sender is authorized to act for the owner. Most major platforms have an online form. The limit: a takedown only removes the specific infringement and produces no monetary recovery.
Cease-and-Desist Letter
A cease-and-desist letter from an attorney typically costs a few hundred to around a thousand dollars and puts the infringer on formal notice. It often stops casual infringement outright and can open the door to a licensing deal or settlement without any court involvement. The letter also helps establish that any continued infringement is willful, which matters if the dispute later goes to trial and statutory damages are in play.