In two decisions handed down today, Highmark v. Allcare and Octane Fitness v. ICON Health & Fitness, the Supreme Court overruled the Federal Circuit, holding that a district court's finding of exceptional case under Sec. 285 is reviewed for abuse of discretion.
Two other points of note: under the Federal Circuit's standard, a case is "exceptional" under 285 if it involves “material inappropriate conduct” or is both “objectively baseless” and “brought in subjective bad faith." The Supreme Court tosses the Federal Circuit's definition, and says "exceptional" means just that: a case "that 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." My initial reaction is that this opens the door to some widely divergent results in exceptional case rulings from different courts.
The Supreme Court also chucks out the Federal Circuit's requirement that exceptional case be proved by clear and convincing evidence, noting that section 285 "imposes no specific evidentiary burden." So exceptional case under section 285 can be proved by a preponderance of the evidence. We will see if this really leads to more findings of exceptional case. My hunch is probably not.
No comments:
Post a Comment