Counsel Ordered to “Facilitate the Award of Attorney’s Fees” by Providing Contact Information for NPE’s Principals

The court granted plaintiff's motion for attorney fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 following defendants' covenant not to sue and ordered defense counsel to provide contact information for all of defendants' principals to facilitate the fee award "because their litigation conduct during plaintiff's action was exceptional." "[Defendant] spuriously has tried to argue that its winding up relieves it of any responsibility to pay attorney’s fees. . . . Not only does this argument have no basis in law, but allowing entities to dissolve in order to avoid any contractual or other obligations would fly in the face of any rational public policy. To that end, this court will order [defense] counsel to identify all principals, including officers and agents, of [both defendants] by name and their last known address within fourteen days in order to facilitate the award of attorney’s fees."

Novartis Corporation v. Webvention Holdings LLC et al, 1-11-cv-03620 (MDD October 28, 2015, Order) (Blake, J.)