I guess there is no such thing as a dry hole.... Blood from a turnip.....what ever....
I’m not sure which lawyers you are referring to. Both sides had lawyers. The lingering copyright claims on Happy Birthday are a disgrace.
Did you know that outside the U.S. the happy face icon is copyrighted by a company in France. The happy face was created by a company in Ohio as part of an internal employee morale program for Amica Insurance of Worcester, Massachusetts, and passed into the public domain when no one thought to register a copyright, except a company in France, a copyright not recognized in the U.S.