DISH Bid for Fees From Patent Law Firm Rejected at Fed. Cir. (1)

An appeals court rejected DISH Network LLC’s bid to recover attorneys’ fees from a law firm that represented what the satellite-TV company described as a “judgment-proof shell” company that unsuccessfully sued it for patent infringement.

The Patent Act’s attorneys’ fee-shifting provision, Section 285, provides that in “exceptional cases” courts can award “reasonable” attorneys’ fees to the “prevailing party.” But traditionally those fees have been assessed against losing parties, not their attorneys. The defense bar has complained in recent years that patent-monetization firms easily sidestep such fees by creating thinly capitalized entities with little or no assets to serve as ...