Prof. Cotter Quoted in Reuters Article on Attorneys' Fees in Patent Cases

An article in Reuters Legal quoted Professor Tom Cotter about a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on its own initiative to rehear a case en banc. The case, NatKwest Inc. v. Matal, involves the question over whether an earlier panel of the court correctly decided that, in a case in which a patent applicant files suit in federal district court alleging that the Patent Office incorrectly rejected his or her application, the Patent Act requires the court to award the Patent Office its attorneys and expert witness expenses regardless of the outcome. Cotter stated that the court's decision to rehear the case sua sponte "might be a signal that there is significant discontent about the outcome of the case."