Federal Circuit Reversed $660,351.93 Fee Award to Google.
Here is an interesting patent decision where a substantial fee award of $660,351.93 to Google was reversed by the Federal Circuit.
In iLOR, LLC v. Google, No. 2010-1117, 1172 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 11, 2011), Google moved to recover fees and costs from a losing plaintiff in a patent case under 35 U.S.C. § 285, which does allow district courts authority to award fees to a prevailing party in “exceptional cases.” The district judge obviously thought this was one of them, awarding $660,351.93 in fees to Google.
The Federal Circuit reversed.
It likened the “exceptional case” standard under § 285 for a suit brought by a patent plaintiff to that of willful infringement, absent evidence of patent prosecution or litigation misconduct (evidence not present in the case under review). The Federal Circuit found iLOR’s claims were not objectively baseless, so it did not need to scrutinize any subjective bad faith proof. Simply being wrong in a claim construction should not subject a losing patent plaintiff to § 285 sanctions where its construction is not objectively baseless in nature.