Judge Makes Lawyers Pay For Frivolous Patent Suit

Gallenod writes "The Denver Post is reporting that the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the decision of a Federal judge who threw out and reversed a jury decision in favor of a patent infringement claim and ordered the plaintiff's lawyers to pay the defendants' court costs. U.S. District Senior Judge Richard P. Matsch sanctioned the plaintiff's attorneys for 'cavalier and abusive' misconduct and for having a 'what can I get away with?' attitude during a 13-day patent infringement trial in Denver. With the Appeals Court in agreement, could this case be the 'shot heard round the world' in the revolution against patent trolls?"

Comments

Re:Why?

[ridgecritter]

Judges have broad authority to set aside or nullify a jury verdict. Usually called "judgement non obstante veredicto", or judgement notwithstanding the verdict. If the judge strongly believes the jury got the facts and/or the applicable law very badly wrong, a jnov can be entered. It's unusual, as juries are accorded very strong cred as the triers of fact.

Re:No impact on patents

[pete-classic]

I see you didn't make it to the seventh paragraph of the article:

"In 42 years of litigation, I've never seen a judge set aside a verdict, then award fees to opposing counsel," said local attorney Robert Miller, of Perkins Coie LLP. "There are times when a verdict is set aside, and times when lawyers are sanctioned. But I've never heard of them happening in one case.

-Peter

He did it because the lawyers suckered the jury

[Ollabelle]

I read a bit of background on this http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202990197454 and noted that the judge in pre-trial motions restricted the construction of the patent claim to fairly narrow grounds. But in the trial, the lawyers ignored that restriction and, among other things, showed the jury how the two competing products were similar rather than showing how the competing product used their client's patent. If effect, the jury based their reasoning on improper evidence. The judge rightfully tossed the verdict and slammed the lawyers for their deceitfulness.

Now, where's my violin?