Porn-trolling operation Prenda Law made its money filing copyright claims over illegal downloads of adult movies. Now, at least four judges want to see the money flow in the other direction—to the defense lawyers who have made short work of Prenda claims.

Prenda didn't only file copyright claims. In some cases, it also made hard-to-understand anti-hacking claims in state court, which led to some success for Prenda. In fact, the company was able to press on getting consumers' contact information even after it was sanctioned in federal court due to an Illinois anti-hacking case where a judge signed off on a broad discovery order.

But those state court cases aren't looking like a slam dunk anymore. The most recent expensive setback for Prenda comes out of the Guava LLC v. Merkel case. That's a Minnesota state court case where Prenda was accused of colluding with a "sham" defendant to get discovery.

Last week, Guava, along with the Alpha Law Firm it used to prosecute the case, was ordered to pay $63,367.02 in attorney's fees to five different law firms who defended the case. The order, published by the blog Fight Copyright Trolls, also bars anyone affiliated with Guava or Alpha Law from filing any more lawsuits in Minnesota state court without posting a $10,000 bond and getting approval from the Minnesota Secretary of State.

Alpha Law Firm is the law firm of Paul Hansmeier. He and John Steele are the two lawyers most commonly pointed to as the masterminds behind Prenda Law's many shell companies.

In all, Prenda has been ordered to pay $81,319.72 in sanctions by US District Judge Otis Wright; $9,425 in the Trinh case, which it failed to appeal; and $22,531 in the Navasca case, where US District Judge Edward Chen is also considering a motion for sanctions. Together with the Merkel fine, the grand total of Prenda-related fines—not including any interest that may accrue during an appeal—is $176,642.74.