Penza, 21 June 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza region Arbitration Court stated to fine “Penza-Press” 60,550 rubles of legal fees in favor of “VolgaInterMedia” over the case for illegal use of a single PenzaNews copyrighted photo in “Pro Gorod Penza” newspaper, in accordance with the resolution announced by judge Stanislav Radin at the court session on Tueday, June 21.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

Before the announcement, the “Penza-Press” representative Radik Musautov presented the court and the “VolgaInterMedia” president Ivan Malikov a written response to the case materials: however, the response was due by 16 June 2016 in accordance to the June 7 court decision.

Moreover, the defendant failed to procure another copy of the written response for the third party – the PenzaNews editor-in-chief Pavel Polosin – present at the session, because, according to Radik Musautov, only “Penza-Press” and “VolgaInterMedia” participate in the event. This false claim immediately elicited a counterreaction from Stanislav Radin, who noted that the third party is also participating in the case.

Following that, the “Penza-Press” representative read out his written response, which summed up to decreasing the amount of legal fees by more than two times – from 60,550 to 25,000 rubles.

In a comment to that, the “VolgaInterMedia” president Ivan Malikov noted that the recent verdict on the illegal use of PenzaNews copyrighted photos was fully supported by the court, and therefore the legal fees must be paid in full.

In addition, he stressed that he sees the original amount of legal fees as suitable and reasonable, since all expenses were reported to the court with required documents.

“The defendant did not explained his decision on the funds – he simply decreased the sum to 25,000 rubles for unknown reasons,” Ivan Malikova said.

After the court asked the third party to speak, Pavel Polosin explained that he fully supports the position of the complainant and sees no reasons to decrease the amount of legal fees, as the case spent nearly a year in review – in first and subsequent appeal instances – with no change to the verdict.

As a result, the judge sided with “VolgaInterMedia” and ordered “Penza-Press” to pay the legal fees in full.

“The Penza region Arbitration Court board of judge Radin, on authority of Articles 190, 184 and 185 of the Arbitration Process Code, states to fully support the claim by ‘VolgaInterMedia’ and fine ‘Penza-Press’ legal fees of 60,550 rubles in favor of ‘VolgaInterMedia.’ The parties may appeal the verdict within one month after it is received by the 11th Arbitration Appeal Court in Samara through the Penza region Arbitration Court. The meeting is closed,” Stanislav Radin said.

With the verdict, the amount of legal fees over illegal use of PenzaNews copyrighted photos in “Pro Gorod Penza” newspaper exceeded the settlement cost of 52,000 rubles impounded by court bailiffs from “Penza-Press” previously.