The Federal Circuit held that there is no right to a jury trial for attorney's fees under 35 USC 285. AIA Am., Inc. v. Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, No. 2016-2647 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 10, 2017). In this case, AIA sued Avid and UPenn alleging infringement of patents directed to Swedish mutation. Avid alleged that AIA lacked standing because Dr. Mullan wasn't the sole inventor and engaged in a scheme to appropriate the inventions from USF. Jury determined that USF didn't waive its ownership rights and based on the jury's verdict, the district court found AIA lacked standing which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit. Later, Avid moved for attorney's fees which the district court awarded. AIA appealed the award arguing that the Seventh Amendment requires a jury trial to decide the facts forming the basis for award of attorney's fees under Section 285. The panel explained that right to a jury trial is reserved for suits at common law, i.e., suits in which legal rights and remedies were at issue. A two-step inquiry set out in Tull v. United States is applied to determine whether a grant of attorney's fees implicates "legal rights and remedies." Because English courts traditionally allowed judges and not juries to determine attorney's fees and attorney's fees under Section 285 is an equitable remedy, the Court found that both steps of the Tull inquiry weren't satisfied. Accordingly, the Court held that requests for attorney's fees do not invoke the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
RSS Feed
