Supreme Court holds that Section 145 does not permit the recovery of USPTO attorney fees under “expenses”

Peter v. NantKwest was decided by the Supreme Court on December 11, 2019 on appeal from the Eastern District of Virginia. The USPTO rejected Nantkwest’s patent application on obviousness grounds. The PTAB affirmed the rejection, and Nantkwest appealed to the district court under 35 U.S.C. § 145. After prevailing at the …

Release payment for past infringement of standard essential patents is a jury question

TCL Communication v. Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson was decided on December 5, 2019 on appeal from the Central District of California. Following a bench trial, the district court determined that declaratory defendant Ericsson’s proposed offers were not “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND). “Over Ericsson’s repeated assertions of its jury trial right,” …

Damages remanded for potential new trial based on appellate finding of reduced liability

VirnetX v. Apple is a nonprecendential case decided on November 22, 2019 on appeal from the Eastern District of Texas. The district court entered summary judgment for plaintiff VirnetX on invalidity, determining that defendant Apple was precluded from pressing its proposed invalidity challenges because of previous litigation between the parties. The …

Federal Circuit on calculating reasonable Section 285 attorney fees under Octane Fitness

Section 285 of the Patent Act provides that a district “court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.” The Supreme Court in Octane Fitness v. Icon Health held that an exceptional case “is simply one that stands out from others with respect to the substantive strength of a …

Preliminary injunction inappropriate where defendant raised a substantial question of validity under anticipation

OrthoAccel Technologies v. Propel Orthodontics is a nonprecedential case decided on September 23, 2019 on appeal from the Northern District of California. The district court denied plaintiff OrthoAccel’s motion for a preliminary injunction because defendant Propel raised a substantial question of validity for the patent under anticipation. OrthoAccel appealed. The Federal …

Declaratory jurisdiction existed where patentee sued the declaratory plaintiff’s customer

UCP v. Balsam is a nonprecedential case decided on September 19, 2019 and unsealed on October 7, 2019 on appeal from the Northern District of California. Balsam sued Frontgate (a third party) alleging infringement of certain patents. After the claim construction order, the parties settled, whereby Frontgate agreed to stop purchasing the relevant product …

Attorney fees based on litigation misconduct reversed because movant is no longer a prevailing party

UCP v. Balsam Brands is a nonprecedential case decided on September 19, 2019 on appeal from the Northern District of California. The district court granted declaratory judgment plaintiff UCP’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement. The district court then granted-in-part and denied-in-part UCP’s motion for attorney fees against declaratory defendant Balsam, holding that “UCP …

Judgment vacated and “pending” case remanded for dismissal after unpatentability at the PTAB

Chrimar Systems v. ALE U.S. is a nonprecedential case decided on September 19, 2019 on appeal from the Eastern District of Texas. After a jury trial returned a verdict against defendant ALE in a case involving four patents, the district court entered a judgment awarding plaintiff Chrimar damages and post-verdict ongoing royalties. …

Injunction, enhanced damages, and attorney fees vacated after finding one patent invalid under Section 101

Chamberlain Group v. Techtronic Industries was decided on August 21, 2019 on appeal from the Northern District of Illinois. After the jury found plaintiff Chamberlain’s patents infringed and not invalid, the district court the district court granted an injunction, enhanced damages and attorney fees. The district court denied defendant Techtronic’s motion for JMOL …

Damages available for products in amended complaint that relate back to the originally accused products

Anza Tech. v. Mushkin was decided on August 16, 2019 on appeal from the District of Colorado. Plaintiff Anza filed this action in March 2017 against Defendant Mushkin in the Eastern District of California. In September 2017, Anza filed its first amended complaint, which joined Avant as a co-defendant. The …