{"id":1556,"date":"2017-05-11T13:16:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T17:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1556"},"modified":"2017-05-21T13:35:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T17:35:48","slug":"in-determining-whether-a-case-stands-out-it-was-not-improper-to-consider-patent-cases-generally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1556","title":{"rendered":"In Determining Whether a Case “Stands Out,” It was Not Improper to Consider Patent Cases Generally"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Nova Chemicals Corp. (Canada) v. Dow Chemical Co.<\/a>, [2016-1576] (May 11, 2017), the Federal Circuit\u00a0affirmed the district court’s determination that the case was “exceptional” under 35 USC 285, and the award of $2.5 million in attorneys’ fees.<\/p>\n

After a patent infringement trial which resulted in a $61 million award to Dow, in a proceeding for supplemental damages, the patent was found to be invalid for indefiniteness. \u00a0After uncovering what it claimed was evidence of fraud on the part of Dow and its counsel, Nova filed an action for relief from the initial judgment. The district court dismissed the action, and Dow sought sanctions and attorneys fees under 35 USC 285. \u00a0The district agreed with Dow finding\u00a0NOVA\u2019s claims for relief \u201cjust didn\u2019t stand
\nup\u201d and were \u201cnot even plausible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Federal Circuit found nothing exceptional in the mere fact that NOVA filed a separate action because that was the only option available to challenge the earlier judgment. \u00a0However, \u00a0the Federal Circuit found that the\u00a0substantive strength of a NOVA’s position could, and did, independently support an exceptional-case determination.<\/p>\n

Nova also argued that it was error to compare the case to all patent cases, pointing out with this baseline\u00a0an action to set aside a prior judgment would\u00a0always be exceptional because, by necessity,it would
\n\u201cstand out\u201d from the traditional patent infringement\u00a0case. \u00a0The Federal Circuit\u00a0decline to\u00a0hold that the district court erred in comparing this case to\u00a0other patent cases more generally. \u00a0The Federal Circuit found that any concern regarding the district court’s comparison was tempered by the fact that it did not hold that this case\u00a0stood out merely because NOVA requested that a prior\u00a0judgment be set aside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Nova Chemicals Corp. (Canada) v. Dow Chemical Co., [2016-1576] (May 11, 2017), the Federal Circuit\u00a0affirmed the district court’s determination that the case was “exceptional” under 35 USC 285, and the award of $2.5 million in attorneys’ fees. After a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attorneys-fees"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}