In a recent Order, Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider of the District of New Jersey, sitting by designation, denied a defendant’s motion for attorneys’ fees, filed after the defendant prevailed on summary judgment and the plaintiff noticed its appeal. Bayer CropScience AG, et al., v. Dow AgroSciences LLC, C.A. No. 12-256 (RMB/JS) (D. Del. Jan. 10, 2014). Given that the plaintiff’s appeal of the summary judgment order was pending, the Court recognized it could either rule on the defendant’s motion for fees, defer ruling until after the appeal, or deny the motion without prejudice to refile at a later date. It viewed the first option as inefficient in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s anticipated June 2014 decision in Icon Health & Fitness, Inc. v. Octane Fitness, a decision the Court anticipated would help “define and clarify the standard the Court must use to decide whether this is an exceptional case.” The Court also “[saw] no benefit to indefinitely delaying a ruling on [the plaintiff’s] motion” pending the resolution of the appeal, because such a potentially lengthy delay could result in faded memories about the issues addressed in the motion, especially if any of the attorneys involved left their current law firms. The Court decided, therefore, that the best option was to deny the motion without prejudice to the defendant’s re-filing it within 20 days of the Supreme Court’s issuance of its opinion in Octane Fitness.
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