United States Federal Circuit

Following entry of summary judgment in favor of defendant on plaintiff's patent infringement claims, the district court's denial of defendant's motion for attorneys' fees is vacated and remanded, where: 1) to the extent that the district court required actual knowledge of objective baselessness, it erred; and 2) the district court prematurely ended its "exceptional case" inquiry without determining whether plaintiff's doctrine of equivalents theory was objectively baseless and whether that fact or other circumstantial evidence would support an inference of subjective bad faith on the part of plaintiff.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/26/2013
• Published 12/26/2013

Judges

• O’MALLEY

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel