Criticizing plaintiff’s ‘chutzpah,’ federal judge holds lawyer jointly responsible for over $207K in legal fees

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Criticizing plaintiff’s ‘chutzpah,’ federal…

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Criticizing plaintiff’s ‘chutzpah,’ federal decide holds lawyer collectively accountable for over $207K in authorized charges

By Debra Cassens Weiss

August 29, 2024, 2:34 pm CDT

A federal decide in Houston is holding a lawyer and his consumer answerable for greater than $207,500 of their opponent’s authorized charges, saying they filed a patent infringement lawsuit and continued to litigate it after the defendant “identified its apparent lack of benefit.”

U.S. District Choose Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas required Houston lawyer William P. Ramey III and his consumer VDPP to pay the charges of their go well with contending {that a} Volkswagen backup digital camera infringed VDPP’s patent, Reuters stories.

VDPP had argued that the price award must be restricted to the time spent defending “the distinctive portion of the case,” a reference to elements of a case discovered to be frivolous or unreasonable.

Rosenthal responded that your entire case was frivolous, and VDPP’s arguments displayed “chutzpah.”

“Your complete case was distinctive, from the outset, for causes that VDPP and its counsel knew,” wrote Rosenthal in her Aug. 13 determination. “There is no such thing as a have to allocate the charges between the frivolous and nonfrivolous facets of the case. It was all frivolous.”

VDPP sought future damages that had been “clearly unrecoverable” as a result of the patent had expired, Rosenthal wrote. The corporate sought previous damages that had been “clearly unrecoverable” as a result of VDPP had not complied with marking necessities, she mentioned.

And VDPP “lied concerning the existence of prior licensing agreements that confirmed the meritless nature of its case,” Rosenthal mentioned.

In a previous determination, Rosenthal mentioned settlement agreements licensing the VDPP patent didn’t require licensees to adjust to marking necessities. VDPP had mentioned there have been no settlement agreements—solely “agreements in precept,” Rosenthal mentioned.

In accordance with Reuters, Ramey and his regulation agency filed greater than 100 fits this yr, together with at the least 25 by which VDPP was the plaintiff. Federal judges have imposed price sanctions in Ramey’s circumstances at the least seven instances in 4 years, in response to Reuters. The sanctions whole is at the least $810,000, in response to the wire service.

Ramey informed Reuters in a press release that he and VDPP “respect all courtroom orders. We enchantment these orders we expect are incorrect, as we have now carried out on this case.”

Ramey didn’t instantly reply to an ABA Journal request for remark made in an e-mail and in a message left along with his agency.