What Patent Attorney Fee Awards Really Look Like

63 Duke L.J. Online 15 (2014)

16 Pages Posted: 6 Mar 2014 Last revised: 30 Dec 2014

See all articles by Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Duke University School of Law

Date Written: February 24, 2014

Abstract

This essay gives an empirical account of attorney fee awards over the last decade of patent litigation. Given the current attention in legislative proposals and on the Supreme Court’s docket to more liberal fee shifting as a check on abusive patent litigation, a fuller descriptive understanding of the current regime is of utmost importance to forming sound patent litigation policy. Following a brief overview of judicial experience in patent cases and trends in patent case filing, this study presents analysis of over 200 attorney fee award orders during 2003-2013.

The study confirms the commonsense view that plaintiffs have tended to receive attorney fee awards more often than defendants have, but that such awards have been larger when defendants did receive them. Notably, observed attorney fee awards have been an order of magnitude lower than estimated. Attorney fee awards also vary, in magnitude and distribution, according to the technology area of the patents involved in the dispute. Finally, patent attorney fee awards often follow systematic calculation and discounting with explanatory discussion, reflecting a pattern of fact-intensive evaluation by district judges of such awards.

Keywords: patents, litigation, fee shifting, empirical

JEL Classification: O34, K41

Suggested Citation

Vishnubhakat, Saurabh, What Patent Attorney Fee Awards Really Look Like (February 24, 2014). 63 Duke L.J. Online 15 (2014), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2404707

Saurabh Vishnubhakat (Contact Author)

Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law ( email )

55 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10003
United States

HOME PAGE: http://cardozo.yu.edu/directory/saurabh-vishnubhakat

Duke University School of Law

Durham, NC

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
187
Abstract Views
1,646
Rank
290,730
PlumX Metrics