Bosses at energy drinks firm Monster Beverage Corp. have vowed to appeal a court ruling ordering them to pay the Beastie Boys $1.7 million (£1.06 million) for copyright infringement.

A jury at Manhattan federal court in New York ruled against the defendants on Friday (06Jun14) after an eight-day trial, during which they admitted to using the band's music, including hits Sabotage and Make Some Noise, in a 2012 online video tribute to late band member Adam 'MCA' Yauch without permission.

Monster Beverage's attorney, Reid Kahn, claimed his clients incorrectly thought they had the authority to use the tracks and urged jurors to award the rappers no more than $125,000 (£78,000), as the Beastie Boys' demands for at least $2 million (£1.2 million) in damages were "contrary to common sense".

He is now planning to challenge the judgement on his clients' behalf.

A statement released following Friday's loss reads: "Although Monster Energy has great respect for the verdict of the jury, we strongly disagree with it. We will make an application to the Court to set aside the verdict and we intend to file an appeal.

"From the inception, Monster Energy has been willing to resolve this matter in a fair and equitable manner and we will continue to make additional efforts to reach a just resolution of this dispute."

Surviving Beastie Boys Michael 'Mike D' Diamond and Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horovitz each took the stand during the trial and insisted they would never have allowed their songs to be used by Monster Beverage Corp. as they had promised their late pal that they would fight any commercial exploitation of the band's music.