Request for Attorney Fees of $1.3 Million Reduced to $100 Thousand Due to Heavily Redacted Billing Records

The court awarded defendant only $100,000 of its claimed $1.3 million in attorney fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 because defendant failed to present sufficient evidence to support its fee claim. "No explanation is included as to nature of the tasks performed that [defendant] categorizes as exclusive to the defense of [one patent-in-suit], to which [defendant's] recovery is limited. The over 400 pages of invoices provided have been completely redacted of all narrative description of the work performed. . . . The Court is highly skeptical that the descriptive narratives of every single time entry by every single timekeeper in this case constituted an attorney-client privileged communication or work product. . . . The Court declines [defendant's] offer to provide the Court with the 400 plus pages of billing records unredacted in camera so the Court can review the individual entries and determine from the hundreds of pages the reasonableness of the work performed. . . . Measured by the pleadings and motions filed attributable to the [patent-at-issue], the Court, in its discretion, awards [defendant] $100,000.00."

IPS Group, Inc. v. Duncan Solutions, Inc., 3-15-cv-01526 (CASD August 17, 2018, Order) (Bencivengo, USDJ)