Earlier this year, the song “Happy Birthday to You” lost its copyright protection. Attorney Mark Rifkin represented a class action lawsuit against Warner/Chappell Music (formed in 1929 with a merger of Chappell Brothers and Warner Brothers, the movie studio) claiming that the song was not entitled to the Copyright that Warner/Chappell had on the song.
Warner/Chappell lost, and lost big – to the tune of $14 million. It appears that Mark Rifkin, Esq., however, did pretty well. The court just awarded him $4.6 million for his services.