Thursday, February 9, 2012

Pursuing Litigation After Claim Construction Was Vexatious, Warranting Award of Attorneys' Fees

The court granted in part defendant's motion for attorneys' fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 and awarded fees beginning from the date claim construction was resolved. "Plaintiffs timely requested reconsideration of the court’s Markman order, timely appealed, and won their appeal, albeit not on a construction implicated in the court’s [order declaring the case exceptional]. Plaintiffs had a right to resolve a claim construction which they believed to be erroneous, even if resolution of that construction did nothing to make their claims of infringement any more meritorious. Having resolved all issues of claim construction, plaintiffs’ persistence in prosecuting a case that was now clearly without merit was vexatious and unjustified."

Cartner, et. al. v. Alamo Group, Inc
., 1-07-cv-01589 (OHND February 6, 2012, Order) (Vecchiarelli, M.J.)

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