On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision affirming a district court ruling that denied attorney fees to oil drilling equipment company, FMC Technologies. OneSubsea, a competitor in the offshore oil extraction industry, originally sued FMC for patent infringement in 2015; FMC subsequently countersued. At the heart of the patent infringement dispute was whether fluid flows through FMS’s device, as in the OneSubsea patent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision Monday affirming a district court’s ruling that denied attorney fees and sanctions to Pure Hemp Collective, Inc. over a patent infringement suit brought against it by United Cannabis Corporation. The patent at issue, U.S. Patent No. 9730911, covers “Cannabis Extracts and Methods of Preparing and Using Same.” United Cannabis sued Pure Hemp for infringement in July 2018, but, following United Cannabis’ bankruptcy proceedings, the parties stipulated to the dismissal of the patent case. United Cannabis’ infringement claims were dismissed with prejudice while Pure Hemp’s invalidity and inequitable conduct counterclaims were dismissed without prejudice.
On July 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) vacated and remanded an Attorney Fee Order of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida denying an award of attorney fees to ShoppersChoice.com. Electronic Communication Technologies, LLC. v. ShoppersChoice.com, LLC. The CAFC held that the District Court erred in failing to consider Electronic Communication Technologies, LLC’s (ECT) manner of litigation and the objective unreasonableness of ECT’s infringement claims, and further held that the court applied the incorrect attorney fee statute.
On June 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) denied a request by Almirall for attorney fees incurred for work on an inter partes review (IPR) and for work done in connection with a motion before the Federal Circuit in Amneal Pharmaceuticals v. Almirall…. The CAFC explained that it does not appear that it has ‘had occasion to consider to what extent section 285 applies to IPR appeals’ and said that the plain meaning of section 285’s reference to “the court”, suggests that fees should only be awarded if they ‘were incurred during, in close relation to, or as a direct result of, judicial proceedings,’ which did not include USPTO proceedings.
In O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. v. Timney Triggers, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed a district court decision that held Timney Triggers, LLC was not a “prevailing party” for purposes of collecting attorney fees under Section 285. In particular, the CAFC concluded that there was no final court decision capable of establishing the required judicial imprimatur, so there was no prevailing party.