Judge Says Texas Patent Lawyer Must Pay Google’s Attorneys’ Fees

Houston-based patent attorney Bill Ramey was sanctioned Monday by a federal judge for his conduct in an unsuccessful infringement suit against Google LLC.

Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York chastised Ramey and found him responsible for filing an exceptionally weak patent suit and then failing to dismiss it after being alerted to its deficiencies by lawyers for the tech titan. She ordered Ramey to pay Google’s attorneys’ fees and directed Google to submit billing records by April 7 to support its requested $124,000.

Ramey “failed to conduct an adequate pre-suit investigation that would have uncovered information demonstrating that the patent-infringement claim lacked merit and also ‘unreasonably continued pursuing’ the claim despite notice from the defendant that the claim lacked a colorable basis,” Figueredo concluded in an opinion.

Specifically, Figueredo faulted Ramey for filing a complaint that included false allegations that Google had pre-suit “knowledge of the allegedly infringed patent” belonging to the lawyer’s client, EscapeX IP LLC.

She said the conduct was “part of a long pattern of similar behavior that warrants deterrence through an award under § 1927,” a statute that allows litigants to recover costs incurred due to an opposing side’s lawyer who “unreasonably and vexatiously” multiplies proceedings in a federal lawsuit.

Figueredo denied Google’s motion for additional sanctions against Ramey and EscapeX IP under the court’s inherent power, but said if Google wished to pursue a penalty against the patent owner on that basis it could file briefing by mid-April on why such sanctions are appropriate.

Ramey has chalked up a number of prior sanctions awards against him and his firm Ramey LLP as the natural result of their standing up to big corporate defendants. “We wear it with a badge of honor,” Ramey said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Law. “We’re doing everything we can. And we’ll get up tomorrow and stand up again.”

Ramey said by email Monday that his firm would “review the magistrate’s order and object.”

EscapeX is also represented David J. Hoffman of New York. Barnes & Thornburg represents Google.

The case is EscapeX IP LLC v. Google LLC, S.D.N.Y., 1:23-cv-10839, mot. for sanctions granted in part 3/24/25.