yourstate.us
Home / United States / 17 U.S.C.
17 U.S.C. § 505

Remedies for infringement: Costs and attorney’s fees

United States · Title 17 — COPYRIGHTS · Status: effective

Courts & Civil Procedure
Get this as JSONEmbed this
Cite this
Citation
17 U.S.C. § 505, Remedies for infringement: Costs and attorney’s fees, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/448514
Permanent ID
ys:prov:448514@1
SHA-256
9aa549e8f5d2c7bdd37666786453291070057c741dbe7e4dad1cdcbde42426fe

The hash is SHA-256 of this version's text, with every run of whitespace collapsed to a single space and the ends trimmed. The ID always leads back here, and checking it says whether the text you cited is still the current version.

Full text

In any civil action under this title, the court in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs by or against any party other than the United States or an officer thereof. Except as otherwise provided by this title, the court may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs.

Legislative history

The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone.

  • Enacted byPub. L. 94-553(S. 22)1976-10-19
    An Act for the general revision of the Copyright Law, title 17 of the United States Code, and for other purposes.
    House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally