Intellectual Property: Federal Circuit Affirms $1.6 Million Fee Award To Defense In Octane Fitness Case

Fee Award Sustained Following Oft-Quoted SCOTUS Decision.

            Likely the final chapter has been closed on the fee battle in the case which produced the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 1749, 1756, 1758 (2014), defining the flexibility given district judges to decide whether a patent case is exceptional for purposes of a fee award under 35 U.S.C. § 285.  What happened below is the district judge awarded over $1.6 million in fees to the defense after finding the case to be “weak.”  The Federal Circuit affirmed late last week in ICON Health & Fitness, Inc. v. Octane Fitness, LLC, Nos. 2016-1047 & -1101 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 25, 2017) (nonprecedential).