Bloomberg Law Quotes Prof. Cotter on Opinion Vacating Attorneys’ Fee Award

An August 3, 2020 Bloomberg Law article (subscription required) titled “FastShip’s $6 Million Fee Award in Navy Patent Fight Nixed” discusses a recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, FastShip, LLC v. United States. The decision vacates an award of $6 million in attorneys’ fees which a lower court had granted an inventor who prevailed in a patent dispute against the U.S. Navy. The article notes that the decision is consistent with a decision earlier this year, which reads the relevant statute (28 U.S.C. § 1498(a)) as not permitting fee awards in patent disputes against the government for the government’s pre-litigation conduct. The article also states that “FastShip spent $6 million to litigate the case where it only won $7 million in damages,” and quotes Professor Tom Cotter as stating, among other things, that the court’s interpretation “makes it marginally more difficult for some patent holders to proceed with claims against the government because they have to shoulder their own fees.”