University of Utah v. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Wissenschaften E.V.

REYNA, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-Appellants (“Max Planck”) appeal a decision of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which found that this case was not “exceptional” within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 285 and thus denied Max Planck’s motion for attorney fees. The district court did not abuse its discretion. We therefore affirm.

Background

A. Discovery of the Patented Invention

The underlying dispute concerns inven-torship of the Tuschl II patents, 1 which relate to the field of RNA interference (“RNAi”). RNAi is a process for “silencing” certain genes from expressing…