When Dreams Come True? Using Section 285 to Impose Fees against a Losing Patentee’s Lawyers

By David Hricik

[This article first appeared in Landslide Magazine.]

A patentee can use the extraordinary costs of defense to extract settlements that far exceed the value of the technology to the defendant. Further, if the patentee’s business is asserting patents, it likely will have, compared to a manufacturer-defendant, fewer documents, fewer employees, and less to lose in a patent case.[1] These asymmetrical costs can lead to frivolous claims being made solely to extract unreasonable settlements.

Defense counsel has some tools, imperfect as they are, to shift those costs, including Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11, 28 U.S.C. § 1927, and a court’s inherent power.[2] But only one tool generally allows for all fees to be shifted from a prevailing defendant to a losing patentee: 35 U.S.C. § 285. Section 285 authorizes fee shifting only in an “exceptional case.” Earlier this year, the Supreme Court in Octane Fitness, LLC v. Icon Health & Fitness, Inc., made it easier to recover fees, holding that an “exceptional case” was simply that: unusual, in that it “stands out from others with respect to the substantive strength of a party’s litigating position (considering both the governing law and the facts of the case) or the unreasonable manner in which the case was litigated.”[3] Presumably, Octane will result in awards of fees in a greater number of cases, because the Court rejected interpreting the statute to allow fee shifting only upon clear and convincing evidence of both objective and subjective bad faith.[4]

Yet, particularly where the patentee is an asset-less “troll,” shifting fees is a hollow victory. An uncollectible judgment is literally not worth the paper it is printed on. But often trolls are represented by plaintiffs’ counsel, who may have deep, if not the only, pockets. No court has rigorously analyzed whether fees under § 285 may be imposed on the loser’s attorneys (either singly or jointly with the patentee), though motions to shift fees onto lawyers post-Octane are already being filed.[5]

This article shows that whether § 285 authorizes a prevailing accused infringer to have fees awarded against the patentee’s lawyer, either alone or jointly with the client, is an open question with strong arguments that it does. The article concludes by explaining why, even if lawyers are not directly liable to the opposing party, ultimately much of the increase in § 285 fee awards will be borne by lawyers, not their clients.

History, Text, and Purpose of Section 285

Fee shifting became available in patent cases for the first time in 1946 under 35 U.S.C. § 70, which permitted a court “in its discretion” to award fees “to the prevailing party.”[6] Congress made § 70 applicable to both accused infringers and patentees. Fee shifting in favor of a patentee was deemed necessary not only to ensure that a patentee who was forced to file a suit to protect its patent would not merely receive a reasonable royalty—what it would have received had the accused infringer taken a license in the first place—but also to prevent “a gross injustice.”[7]

Of course, the primary “gross injustice” a prevailing accused infringer faces in this statute’s context is paying its defense costs. Thus, with respect to the issue here, the statute’s purpose is to compensate a prevailing accused infringer to achieve justice. Consistent with this, courts soon emphasized that the statute focused on equity, fairness, and justice, stating for example that a fee award should be “bottomed upon a finding of unfairness or bad faith in the conduct of the losing party, or some other equitable consideration of similar force, which makes it grossly unjust that the winner . . . be left to bear the burden of his own counsel fees.”[8]

Congress recodified § 70 into what is now § 285. Rather than effecting substantive change, Congress added the phrase “exceptional case” to § 285 to codify the approach of those cases that had applied § 70 between 1946 and 1952.[9] Thus, § 285 focuses on achieving fairness, justice, and equity. With respect to accused infringers, § 285 is intended to avoid the injustice of a prevailing accused infringer having to bear the cost of defense in an exceptional case.

No one doubts that an award of fees in favor of a prevailing accused infringer can be entered against the patentee. But can an award be entered against the patentee’s lawyers, either alone or jointly with the patentee? In related cases and without rigorously analyzing the statute, the Federal Circuit gave mixed signals. In a nonprecedential opinion, the court reversed a district court’s award of fees under § 285 against the patentee’s counsel, but in a later precedential opinion, over a dissent, it apparently affirmed an award jointly and severally against the patentee and its counsel.[10]

Arguments that Section 285 Permits Shifting Fees onto Loser’s Counsel

The text is the starting point: nothing in § 285 indicates who must pay. Instead, the statute only states that fees may be awarded to a prevailing party. Congress could have but did not specify that the losing party must pay the prevailing party its fees, only that a party must prevail to receive a fee award. When Congress has wanted to limit statutes in that way, it has done so. Foremost, the Copyright Act allows the court to award “the recovery of full costs by or against any party.”[11] Congress’s decision not to limit § 285 in this same way confirms § 285’s plain meaning: it only specifies who can win, not who must pay.

Further, rules with similar structures have been interpreted in this way. For example, Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 38 allows an award of fees for frivolous appeals “to the appellee.” That rule has been interpreted to permit an award against counsel, the appellee, or both.[12] Section 285 is likewise open-ended with respect to who must pay.

Moving beyond the text, the purpose of § 285 and congressional intent each suggests that an award against attorneys might be proper: an uncollectible award of fees does nothing to avoid the injustice of a wrongfully accused infringer paying the cost of defense in an exceptional case. The intent of Congress and the purpose of § 285 would be frustrated by a construction that does not permit awards against attorneys, at least where they are the only real recourse for compensation.

Further, construing § 285 to not permit fee awards against counsel results in some absurdities. Foremost, that interpretation would impose costs on the patentee for decisions that it may be incapable of making and, in fact, did not make. For example, many patentees cannot assess what a claim means; yet, courts have found cases “exceptional” for unreasonable infringement claims.[13] In that circumstance, imposing costs on patentees, not lawyers, punishes the wrong party and does not deter the offensive conduct. It may in fact result in punishing the innocent patentee, and yet awarding nothing in substance to the victim, the accused infringer.

Illustrating that point further, Rule 11 does not permit sanctions to be awarded against a client where the basis for the sanction is a frivolous legal argument.[14] Where the basis of a fee is a frivolous legal argument, interpreting § 285 to not permit awards against lawyers would result in clients being on the hook for fees, which is clearly against public policy. Further, unless a lawyer can be liable under § 285, the lawyer’s interest is to characterize any legal arguments as being solely the basis for an award under that statute, rather than Rule 11. In this regard, some courts have refused to permit a client to indemnify an attorney for sanctions imposed against the lawyer, recognizing that the deterrent effect of sanctions would be diminished.[15]

Finally as a matter of policy, sanctions are generally not insurable, but damages for malpractice are.[16] Thus, by imposing fees only on the patentee, courts may indirectly allow lawyers to insure themselves for damages that otherwise would not be insurable.

Arguments against Interpreting Section 285 to Permit Shifting Fees onto Counsel

Some statutes do permit awards expressly against attorneys. Foremost, 28 U.S.C. § 1927 permits sanctions against “[a]ny attorney or other person admitted” to practice. The existence of these statutes suggests that when Congress wants to permit an award of fees against a lawyer, it knows how to do so, and it did not do so in § 285. Where a fee shifting statute does not mention attorneys, some courts infer that awards against counsel are improper.[17]

In addition, at least after Octane, imposing liability directly onto attorneys may chill advocacy. Specifically, an attorney may not make an argument permitted by Rule 11 in light of the potential for liability under the much lower, and amorphous, standard in Octane.

Finally, although the purpose of § 285 was to avoid an injustice to prevailing accused infringers, Congress no doubt understood that normal limitations of liability that benefit corporations would apply. What matters is what Congress intended in 1952, and nothing suggests that it was concerned about asset-less trolls enforcing patents but leaving accused infringers actually uncompensated for their loss.

Conclusion

It is an open question whether § 285 allows fee awards against losing counsel. Given the statute’s open-ended language and broad equitable purpose of avoiding the injustice of an accused infringer paying its own fees, the text would seem to permit such awards when justice so requires. Those circumstances may include where counsel has assisted the patentee to structure its operations to avoid having assets to pay any award of fees, or where the lawyer’s conduct causes the exceptional nature of the case. In making any award, however, courts should carefully consider any chilling effect that an award may have on advocacy.

Lawyers should carefully consider several things in the post-Octane world:

The patentee’s counsel faces different issues than the accused infringer’s. First, to some extent it may be unethical to seek indemnity or reimbursement of such claims.[18] Second, suppose the lawyer of a patentee who loses faces the motion of the prevailing accused infringer asserting that the lawyer is liable to the accused infringer for its fees. That lawyer must face the fact that the patentee’s interest is that the lawyer bears those costs, while the lawyer’s interest is the opposite. As a result, it may be necessary for the lawyer, at a minimum, to obtain the client’s informed consent to continue the representation.

Counsel for an accused infringer must determine whether to attempt to shift fees onto the patentee’s counsel, rather than the patentee. Even if the patentee has assets, an order holding the patentee and its counsel jointly liable may best serve the accused infringer.

Finally, fee awards are going to be borne largely by lawyers, not clients. A client ordered to pay the other side’s fees will often contend that the lawyer’s incompetence caused the client to bring, or defend, an exceptional case. A lawyer should consider insurance, indemnification, revisions to engagement letters to permit withdrawal, and other ways to protect the lawyer and to make the risks clear to the client.

All lawyers should analyze § 285 carefully. It may be a dream come true, or a dark nightmare.

BIO: David Hricik is a professor at Mercer University School of Law and of counsel at Taylor English Duma LLP in Atlanta, Georgia. He clerked for Chief Judge Rader in 2012, has written on statutory interpretation, and is nationally recognized as an expert in legal ethics in patent practice. The title is from “When Dreams Come True,” by John Wesley Harding on the CD Garden of Eden (2003).

[1]. See David Hricik, Legal Ethics and Non-Practicing Entities: Being on the Receiving End Matters Too, 27 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 793 (2010); Randall R. Rader, Colleen V. Chien & David Hricik, Make Patent Trolls Pay in Court, N.Y. Times, June 4, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/opinion/make-patent-trolls-pay-in-court.html?_r=1&.

[2]. See David Hricik, Patent Ethics: Litigation § 5.01 (LexisNexis 2014).

[3]. 134 S. Ct. 1749, 1756 (2014).

[4]. Id. at 1756–57.

[5]. See, e.g., Opinion and Order, Rates Tech. Inc. v. Broadvox Holding Co., LLC, No. 13 Civ. 0152 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 7, 2014) (concluding without rigorous analysis that § 285 did not authorize awards against lawyers).

[6]. See Octane, 134 S. Ct. at 1753.

[7]. See S. Rep. No. 79-1503 (1946).

[8]. Park-in-Theatres, Inc. v. Perkins, 190 F.2d 137, 142 (9th Cir. 1951) (emphasis added). Courts considered all facts, including whether the patentee could have simplified the case, made unreasonable infringement claims, or delayed in suing or in dropping customer-defendants. E.g., Merrill v. Builders Ornamental Iron Co., 197 F.2d 16 (10th Cir. 1952); Aeration Processes, Inc. v. Walter Kidde & Co., 170 F.2d 437 (2d Cir. 1948); Brennan v. Hawley Prods. Co., 98 F. Supp. 369 (N.D. Ill. 1951).

[9]. See Mach. Corp. of Am. v. Gullfiber AB, 774 F.2d 467 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (explaining addition of the “exceptional case” language).

[10]. Compare Phonometrics, Inc. v. ITT Sheraton Corp., 64 F. App’x 219 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (reversing § 285 award against lawyer), with Phonometrics, Inc. v. Westin Hotel Co., 350 F.3d 1242, 1253 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (affirming an apparent award of joint and several liability against client and lawyer over the dissent of Judge Newman, who argued that awards against counsel under § 285 were permissible only for egregious conduct). See also Stillman v. Edmund Scientific Co., 522 F.2d 798, 800 (4th Cir. 1975) (opining that “it is not the purpose of [§ 285] to discipline uncooperative or overzealous counsel”).

[11]. 17 U.S.C. § 505 (emphasis added).

[12]. “[M]any cases under rule 38 assess sanctions against offending counsel, alone or jointly with the client . . . .” Coghlan v. Starkey, 852 F.2d 806, 818 (5th Cir. 1988) (citing cases).

[13]. See Hricik, Patent Ethics, supra note 2, § 5.03[5][b] (collecting cases).

[14]. Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(c)(5)(A).

[15]. See Young Apartments, Inc. v. Town of Jupiter, Fla., 503 F. App’x 711 (11th Cir. 2013) (collecting cases and discussing policy issues); N.Y. Cnty. Lawyers’ Ass’n Comm. on Prof’l Ethics, Op. 683 (Nov. 15, 1990) (analyzing propriety of clients reimbursing lawyers for sanctions).

[16]. If a lawyer brings a patent case and fees are shifted under § 285 and imposed on the patentee, the patentee can contend that that lawyer acted incompetently by pursuing the case at all, or continuing after some point. Courts have already entertained these suits. For example, in E-Pass Technologies v. Moses & Singer, LLP, fees had been imposed on a losing patentee who then brought a legal malpractice claim against its lawyers. No. C-09-5967, 2011 WL 5357912 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 4, 2011); see also Deutch & Shur, P.C. v. Roth, 663 A.2d 1373, 1375 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1995) (stating that “the client may seek indemnification against the attorney for sanctions”); In re S. Bay Med. Assocs., 184 B.R. 963 (C.D. Cal. 1995) (analyzing indemnity of sanctions orders). Of course, and particularly under the broader Octane standard, simply because fees are imposed under § 285 does not automatically evidence incompetence.

[17]. E.g., Neft v. Vidmark, Inc., 923 F.2d 746, 747 (9th Cir. 1991).

[18]. For a discussion of indemnification in the context of sanctions, see N.Y. Cnty. Lawyers’ Ass’n Comm. on Prof’l Ethics, Op. 683 (Nov. 15, 1990).