Fresh From the Bench: Latest Precedential Patent Cases
Contributed by Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt. Originally published on Patexia; republished here as part of the LexDana archive.
CASE OF THE WEEK
EscapeX IP, LLC c. Google LLC, Appeal No. 2024-1201 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 25, 2025)
Our Case of the Week concerns an attorney fee award in a lawsuit filed by non-practicing entity EscapeX against Google. Following various forms of exceptional conduct, the Court awarded fees, and then further awarded fees against the attorneys pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1927 based on their conduct in briefing the fees issues.
This case falls into a line of cases where the facts are so amusing (and exceptional) that the earnest reader with a few minutes to spare would be advised to read the entire 14-page opinion.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. MediaPointe, Inc., Appeal No. 2024-1571 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 25, 2025)
In an infringement case concerning streaming media content over the internet to geographically dispersed users, the Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment of non-infringement. In so ruling, the Court explained that when a claim term has not been expressly construed, the jury is allowed to give that term any reasonable meaning consistent with how a skilled artisan would understand it in context. This means that summary judgment is inappropriate if the nonmovant can point to a reasonable interpretation under which infringement could be found. Here, certain terms could not be reasonably interpreted in the manner MediaPointe urged, meaning there was no reasonable construction a jury could adopt that would create a factual dispute. As a result, even with expert testimony included, the district court properly resolved the issue on summary judgment without sending it to the jury. The Federal Circuit also reviewed the lower court’s indefiniteness ruling as to certain claims, affirming that use of the terms “optimal” and “best” rendered those claims indefinite where the patents provided no guidance on how such terms were to be applied.
The opinion can be found here.
Editors:
Nika Aldrich, IP Litigation Group Leader, Schwabe
Jason A. Wrubleski, Shareholder
Contributor:
Jason Evans, Associate
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