Bluebonnet Internet Media Services, LLC v. Pandora Media, LLC

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

BLUEBONNET INTERNET MEDIA Case No. 21-cv-08294-VC

SERVICES, LLC,

Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR

ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND

v. SANCTIONS

PANDORA MEDIA, LLC, Re: Dkt. No. 163 Defendant.

Pandora’s motion for attorneys’ fees is denied. The conduct of Bluebonnet and its counsel is troubling, and judgment on the pleadings was not a close question. But this case was not so weak or litigated so unreasonably as to be “exceptional” under 35 U.S.C. § 285. See Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., 572 U.S. 545, 554 (2014). In particular, the patents in this case were issued after the Supreme Court’s Alice decision, and there is disagreement among courts on how to apply that decision. For the same reasons, fees are also not warranted under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 or the Court’s inherent authority. The related motions to seal are granted. Dkt. Nos. 161, 162, 172, 173, 177. The sealed documents include material previously ordered sealed, technical information from Pandora that was filed by Bluebonnet, and three pages of brief notes apparently dating from the…