The underlying dispute pitted Moonbug, owner of the CoComelon children's media brand, against BabyBus (Fujian) Network Technology Co., a Chinese company whose Super JoJo content a jury found willfully infringed CoComelon copyrights. On July 27, 2023, the jury awarded Moonbug over $17 million in actual damages and lost profits. The court later awarded $6,147,482 in attorney fees, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed on all issues.
The collection saga that followed drove Moonbug's fee motion. BabyBus secretly served a Third Party Claim of Superior Interest through Japan BabyBus Co. Ltd. on Google/YouTube — assets Moonbug was actively levying — without telling Moonbug. BabyBus produced an unprepared 30(b)(6) witness on collection topics and then opposed a follow-up deposition, even though it did not seriously dispute the witness was inadequate. The court found that BabyBus had sought to use Japan BabyBus as a shell to launder the judgment money, and that BabyBus made repeated representations to the court, to Moonbug, and to levied third parties that it was on the verge of satisfying the judgment — representations it never fulfilled. BabyBus then filed an eleventh-hour stay motion after missing its own stipulated deadline, only to withdraw it after Moonbug opposed. The judgment was ultimately satisfied in June 2025, almost entirely through levied third-party payments.
Judge Edward M. Chen held that this pattern of conduct was objectively unreasonable and warranted collection fees under Section 505 of the Copyright Act, applying the Fogerty factors. He found Moonbug had a high degree of success in the enforcement proceedings, that BabyBus was motivated by an intent to thwart enforcement, and that its opposition to a further 30(b)(6) deposition was frivolous. Only the deterrence factor slightly favored BabyBus, given the existing permanent injunction. The court limited recovery to extraordinary collection work, excluding routine levy follow-ups and initial demand letters, and applied a fifty percent discount to fees-on-fees work because Moonbug lost on the appellate fee request.
On appellate fees, the court conducted a fresh Fogerty analysis rather than relying on its prior fee award, holding that a particularized, independent inquiry was required for the appellate phase. BabyBus had limited its appeal to seven discrete issues concerning copyrightability and jury instructions — questions the court itself had previously acknowledged could generate reasonable disagreement. The Ninth Circuit engaged on the merits of each issue rather than disposing of the appeal on harmless error grounds. Critically, BabyBus did not appeal the rulings the court had previously found unreasonable, including its independent development defense, willfulness finding, copyright misrepresentation liability, and sanctions for fabricating evidence. The court held that losing on appeal, standing alone, does not establish objective unreasonableness, and that chilling reasonable appeals by imposing appellate fees would undermine the Copyright Act's goal of encouraging useful copyright litigation.
Moonbug originally sought a combined $933,148 in fees — $535,155.25 incurred on appeal and $407,550.75 incurred through judgment enforcement. In supplemental briefing, Moonbug revised its collection fee request down to $315,488. It recovered $279,962.75.