Mostly Memories, Inc. v. For Your Ease Only, Inc

The underlying case involved copyright infringement and related business claims involving designs of scented candles and other giftware. The president of the plaintiff, Mostly Memories, made a series of admissions at her deposition that proved the verified complaint was not true in critical respects. Mostly Memories' counsel asked that the deposition be stopped, in exchange for voluntarily dismissing the entire complaint including copyright infringement claims involving 47 works.

Mostly Memories' counsel then moved for a voluntary dismissal with prejudice based in large part on a lack of credibility of Mostly Memories' own president. The district court granted the motion and dismissed the plaintiff's claims with prejudice. Mostly Memories soon moved to vacate its voluntary dismissal, apparenbtly changing its. The court denied this motion.

The district court denied a requested award of fees and sua sponte dismissed For Your Ease Only's counterclaims, ending the case.

Mostly Memories then moved to reconsider the denial of the motion to vacate, but its motion was denied.

Mostly Memories appealed the denial of its motion to vacate. On motion of For Your Ease Only, the appeal was dismissed because it was too late. Mostly Memories' motion to reconsider filed before the district court did not extend the deadline for appeal.

For Your Ease Only appealed the denial of fees and dismissal of its counterclaims. The Seventh CIrcuit sided with For Your Ease Only on both issues. It found For Your Ease Only was the prevailing party under the Copyright Act, and thus was entitled to fees even though the plainitff voluntarily dismissed its claims. It also found no grounds to dismiss For Your Ease Only's counterclaims, and reinstated them.