Conditioning an Amendment to Infringement Contentions Upon Payment of Attorney Fees was an Improper Sanction As There Was No Evidence of Bad Faith

The court vacated the grant of summary judgment and remanded where court conditioned the plaintiff’s amendment to Local Rule infringement contentions on payment of accused infringer’s attorney fees. The payment of fees represented a sanction, and, pursuant to Ninth Circuit precedent, sanctions are only permissible where there is a finding of bad
faith.  Here, there was no finding of bad faith. 

AntiCancer, Inc. v. Pfizer, Inc., Case No. 2013-1056 (October 20, 2014); Opinion By:  Newman, joined by Reyna and Taranto; Appealed From:  Southern District of California, Sammartino, J. To read the court's opinion, click here.