Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

DISH Network L.L.C. v. Dragon Intellectual Property LLC, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2022-1621, 2022-1622, 2022-1777, 2022-1779 · judgment May 20, 2024


Certiorari denied · February 24, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

The Patent Act’s fee-shifting statute, 35 U.S.C. § 285, states: “The court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.” The questions presented are:

  1. Whether the Patent Act’s fee-shifting statute allows a district court discretion to impose joint and several liability for the fee award on a party’s attorney whose actions substantially contribute to the exceptionality of the case.

  2. Whether the same fee-shifting statute allows a district court discretion to award attorney’s fees incurred by a prevailing accused infringer in a parallel administrative proceeding to invalidate a patent.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Lauren Jarvis Dreyer
Baker Botts LLP

For respondent
Robert Edward Freitas
Freitas & Weinberg LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
3 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Feb 24 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Feb 10 2025
    Brief amici curiae of High Tech Inventors Alliance, et al. filed. (Distributed)
  3. Feb 10 2025
    Brief amicus curiae of Unified Patents, LLC filed. (Distributed)
  4. Feb 06 2025
    Brief amicus curiae of Nextremity Solutions, LLC filed. (Distributed)
  5. Feb 05 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2025.
  6. Feb 04 2025
    Waiver of right of respondents Freitas & Weinberg LLP; Robert E. Freitas to respond filed.
  7. Feb 03 2025
    Waiver of right of respondent Dragon Intellectual Property, LLC to respond filed.
  8. Jan 08 2025
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 10, 2025)