A live performance from Mariah Carey, who, along with several other defendants, is seeking legal fees after beating an ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ copyright case. Photo Credit: Raph_PH

These and other defendants made that sizable ask yesterday, ahead of a scheduled May 12th hearing on the matter. As for the dispute itself, we’ve covered the straightforward-enough infringement suit every step of the way – including its seemingly definitive dismissal last month.

And as many know, the complaint is one of an abundance of actions targeting alleged infringement in commercially prominent works. Bearing this point in mind, it’s not a stretch to say that the defendants could be looking to dissuade similar copyright litigation in part by presenting a hefty legal-fees bill.

All told, that bill, reflecting work kicked in by four law firms, comes out to a staggering $185,602 and change.

Behind the figure, the defendants’ attorneys are said to have performed a cumulative total of $125,432 worth of work in opposing the summary judgement motion and another $60,170 or so worth of work preparing their sanctions motion.

At least as described by Mariah Carey and others, notwithstanding the multiple involved firms, “the hours billed show the work was performed with little redundancy.”

Without digging too far into the per-hour particulars here, the involved legal professionals billed at anywhere from an eye-watering $374 hourly (for a paralegal, that is) to an astonishing $1,475 hourly, the text shows.

(Few hours were billed at the latter rate, however. A handful of attorneys and a paralegal apparently performed the lion’s share of the work at a “substantially discounted” rate of no more than $995 per hour.)

Now, all eyes are on the above-mentioned May 12th hearing, which the presiding judge today rescheduled from the original May 5th date.

In the bigger picture, time will tell whether the aggressive legal-fees push makes would-be litigants think twice about firing off infringement actions of their own. As things stand, March alone saw several plaintiffs beat dismissal motions in their copyright battles, with others yet having initiated new suits.

One of the latter is accusing Karol G and different professionals of lifting a third-party beat to create “Gatúbela.” Additionally, George Clinton is suingBridgeport Music in a $100 million copyright-theft action.