CAFC Remands — Requesting District Court Opinion on Attorney Fees

ScreenShot026International Rectifier v. Samsung & IXYS (Fed. Cir. 2005)

After judgment, International Rectifier (IR) filed suit against the defendants for contempt based on an alleged violation of a permanent injunction entered after a consent decree.  IR lost an appeal in September 2004 after the CAFC determined that the permanent injunction was overly broad and the defendants eventually won the lawsuit. On motion, the Court awarded reduced attorney’s fees to Samsung — noting that the case was “terribly over-lawyered.”

On appeal, the CAFC applied 9th Circuit law to review the attorney fee award that arose from the consent decree.  However, because the district court failed to provide an explanation for the reduction in fee, the appellate panel vacated — requesting a “concise but clear explanation of how the district court arrived at its fee reduction.”