TYLER – The Tyler Division of the Eastern District of Texas has ordered AdjustaCam LLC to pay Newegg $546,865.85 in attorneys’ fees and expenses, ending a suit filed in 2010 against it and 55 other defendants.
Judge Rodney Gilstrap made the ruling March 15.
According to the order, in the original 2010 suit, AdjustaCam LLC alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,855,343 for a type of movable camera clip. While AdjustaCam soon dismissed a majority of these claims, it continued to pursue its claim against Newegg until September 2012, at which point it was also dismissed. In October of that same year, Newegg filed a motion seeking attorneys’ fees, a motion that was denied in August of next year.
Much later on in 2016, Newegg appealed the denial in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Octane Fitness LLC v. Icon Health & Fitness Inc. with the intention of categorizing the case as “exceptional,” or “one that stands out from others with respect to the substantive strength of a party’s litigating position ... or the unreasonable manner in which the case was litigated.”
The court heavily leaned on the factual information originally presented to deny the appeal again. It was reversed and remanded by the federal circuit in July 2017 when it found the case against Newegg to be “exceptional” due to “further proceedings consistent with this opinion [Octane Fitness LLC v. Icon Health & Fitness Inc.], including the calculation of attorneys’ fees.”
Much of AdjustaCam’s defense against Newegg’s $546,865.85 total attempted to poke holes in the legitimacy of attorneys and expert’s fees incurred prior to AdjustaCam’s dismal in the district court, the fees incurred litigating the motion after the federal circuit remand, and fees incurred pursuing the second appeal.
In response to AdjustaCam’s claims, Newegg replied that “had AdjustaCam never filed this ‘weak’ lawsuit, there would be no occasion for Newegg to seek fees at all,” a situation the company compared to the case Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations LLC v. ADS Security.
As a non-practicing entity, AdjustaCam’s suit ultimately backfired, resulting in the court's decision to award Newegg $546,865.85 in attorneys’ fees and expenses.