Rappers racked up millions defending (You Gotta) Fight Fight for Your Right (to Party!) against copyright infringement by drinks company

The maker of the Monster Energy drink must pay $668,000 (£427,000) towards the Beastie Boys’ legal fees after the rappers chose to win at all costs in their copyright violation trial, a decision that resulted in a $1.7m jury verdict in their favour.

US district judge Paul Engelmayer wrote in a ruling on 15 June that his review of the band’s legal bills suggests that the “Beastie Boys opted to pay for, and received, the Cadillac Escalade, not the Honda Civic” of legal representation.

He said his attorney fee award fell well short of the $2.4m sought from the Corona, California-based Monster Energy, but was still more than $532,000 above the band’s reasonable costs.

Last June, the Beastie Boys – known in part for the anthem (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) from their 1986 debut album – won their verdict from a federal jury weighing the value of five songs used by Monster without authorisation in a video.

Engelmayer wrote that the lawsuit brought by two surviving Beastie Boys and the wife of deceased member Adam “MCA” Yauch resulted in a hard-fought legal match. “Presiding over trial and hearing the surviving Beastie Boys’ testimony, it was apparent to the court that this case had great personal significance to them,” he said. “Monster’s commercial exploitation of the band’s music and songs, and what the Beastie Boys perceived as Monster’s crass misappropriation of the name of the recently deceased Yauch in its video promoting its energy drinks, appeared to have deeply offended plaintiffs.”

Yauch died of cancer in May 2012 aged 47.

The judge said Beastie Boys members Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond approached the case “with special zeal”, testifying that as a matter of principle they had not licensed their music for product advertisements and would have turned down Monster if it had asked for permission.

Lawyers for Monster and the Beastie Boys did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The Beastie Boys, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, have turned out four No 1 albums and sold more than 40m records, and have helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream over the past three decades.