Bloomberg Law Article Quotes Michael Kahn on Attorneys’ Fees Decision in Patent Infringement Case
Contact:
Akin Gump intellectual property partner Michael Kahn has been quoted in the Pharmaceutical Law & Industry Report article “Weak Patent Case Could Cost Drugmaker Roxane Labs Millions in Fees,” regarding a decision by a federal judge in New Jersey that could cost Roxane Laboratories more than $2 million. Roxane, the article reports, had filed patent infringement claims against two other pharmaceutical companies that were ruled to be “objectively unreasonable, entitling the defendants to recover their attorneys’ fees.”
The 2014 Supreme Court ruling in Octane Fitness v. Icon Health & Fitness, Inc. has led to more courts ordering the losing party in patent cases to pay the winning party’s attorneys’ fees, the article notes. Another ruling, Highmark Inc. v. Allcare Health Mgmt. Sys., Inc., has extended the Octane Fitness decision to apply a more deferential appellate standard of review for fee-shifting determinations.
Kahn said these decisions have become more difficult for the losing party to overturn on appeal since district court judges’ decisions on attorneys’ fees are now accorded more deference since Highmark. He added, “What we are seeing in the market is parties being a lot more cautious in the way they conduct their presuit investigations and how they enter into litigation to avoid outcomes” such as the one in the Roxane decision.
To read the full article, please click here.
