Yesterday was not a good day for the Federal Circuit at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in addition to unanimously reversing the Federal Circuit in Octane v. Icon (see post here), also unanimously reversed the Federal Circuit in Highmark v. Allcare (opinion here). In Highmark, the Federal Circuit had ruled that decisions under Section 285 of the Patent Act—which provides that “[t]he court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party”—must be reviewed de novo on appeal. The Supreme Court reversed, finding that “an appellate court should review all aspects of a district court’s § 285 determination for abuse of discretion.” (Highmark originated before Judge Means at the district court level.)
The Supreme Court did note, however, that “[t]he abuse-of-discretion standard does not preclude an appellate court’s correction of a district court’s legal or factual error: A district court would necessarily abuse its discretion if it based its ruling on an erroneous view of the law or on a clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence.”
The practical application of this decision is that it will now be harder for a district court’s exceptional case finding to be reversed on appeal.