Following a motion for reconsideration of Magistrate Judge Cott's report and recommendations of sanctions in the amount of $187,308.65 against plaintiff for bringing a baseless and frivolous patent infringement case, District Judge McMahon affirmed the sanctions and awarded additional sanctions in the amount of $12,745.35 against plaintiff for a frivolous motion for reconsideration, in Source Vagabond Sys., Ltd. v. Hydrapak, Inc., No. 11 Civ. 5379 (S.D.N.Y., Feb. 21, 2013).
The Court previously granted summary judgment in defendant's favor, which was affirmed without opinion on appeal to the Federal Circuit. We posted previously about the Court's original sanctions order for plaintiff's failure to perform an adquate pre-filing investigation, finding that plaintiff's claim construction in support of its infringement claim violated every relevant rule of claim construction.
The Court found that this case was not close on the merits and lacked any arguable basis in fact, satisfying the standard for awarding sanctions in the first instance. The Court further found that the motion for reconsideration of the sanctions decision "caused this court to waste even more time, and [defendant] to waste even more money, than had already been wasted in supervising and defending against this lawsuit."
The sanctions, totaling $200,054.00, were imposed jointly and severally against plaintiff's law firm and the individual attorneys of record.
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