Nearly two years ago, Medtronic and its outside patent litigation counsel, McDermott Will & Emery, were slammed by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch (D. Colo.) with a attorneys’ fees sanction exceeding $4 million (covered here).
Recently, that decision was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Interestingly, the appellate court placed emphasis in part on the inconsistency, on the one hand, of the trial court’s denial of the opposing party BrainLAB’s repeated motions for judgment as a matter of law and, on the other hand, the trial court’s finding that Medtronic’s position in the case was “frivolous.” It is also interesting to note how clearly Medtronic’s counsel appears to have angered the trial court in contrast to how innocuous their tactics before and at trial appear to have struck the appellate court.