The U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings Tuesday in two cases involving fee shifting in patent infringement actions have been hailed by some as a victory in a battle against patent assertion entities, often referred to as patent trolls. But there is a bit of a debate among patent lawyers as to whether that will be the case.
On Tuesday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued opinions in two unanimous rulings that flatly rejected the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s nearly 10-year policy for determining whether the winning party in a patent infringement action could recoup fees from the losing side. Sotomayor said the Federal Circuit’s policy, as outlined in the 2005 decision in Brooks Furniture Manufacturing v. Dutailier International, was “unduly rigid” and took the discretion away from the district courts in determining whether a patent infringement action was an exceptional case that was “objectively baseless,” therefore invoking the fee-shifting provision of the Patent Act.
