Newegg wins attorneys’ fees in camera patent battle
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed a district court ruling that denied online retailer Newegg attorneys’ fees after it had been sued for patent infringement.
In July 2010 AdjustaCam sued dozens of companies, including Amazon and Walmart, for patent infringement regarding US patent number 5,855,343, relating to adjustable camera clips.
The case was filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
It claimed the retailers had infringed the ‘343 patent by selling and/or creating equipment that supported cameras, such as tripods and other apparatus.
A voluntary dismissal order between AdjustaCam and Newegg was granted in September of that year after a counterclaim by Newegg.
Several others settled the claim out of court and without litigation costs, but Newegg then appealed for attorneys’ fees.
Newegg claimed the case was “an objectively baseless lawsuit brought in bad faith”.
After this was rejected through two separate decisions in the Texas district court in 2014 and 2016, the case made its way to the Federal Circuit.
A three-judge panel delivered its opinion yesterday, July 5, and reversed the rulings.
“We specifically instructed the judge on remand to ‘evaluate’ the merits of Newegg’s motion in the first instance," said Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna, who wrote the opinion for the unanimous panel.
He added: “The district court’s determination that AdjustaCam could reasonably argue infringement is based on clearly erroneous factfindings.”
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