Sanctions Against Plaintiff in Unrelated Cases Do Not Justify § 285 Fee Award

The court denied defendant's motion for attorney fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 after plaintiff dismissed its action following reexamination and rejected defendant's argument that sanctions were needed to deter plaintiff as a bad faith actor. "[Defendant] asserts that [plaintiff] is a repeat bad-faith actor, pointing to sanctions against [plaintiff] in unrelated cases. . . . It would be one thing if [plaintiff] were bringing multiple frivolous actions based on the patent at issue in this case. But instead, [defendant] attempts to aggregate any litigation misconduct [plaintiff] has ever engaged in, in cases of widely varying subject matter, in an effort to have this particular case declared exceptional. This Court refuses to go down that road. Nothing that [plaintiff] did in those other cases occurred before this Court and this Court has no intention of spending countless hours reviewing and critiquing sanction orders issued by other courts."

Sasco v. Weber Electric Manufacturing Company, 8-13-cv-00022 (CACD December 23, 2015, Order) (Carney, J.)