Following a dismissal on the pleadings, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the defendant’s motion for attorneys’ fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 after concluding that the asserted patent was objectively invalid under 35 U.S.C § 101. Linfo, LLC v. Aero Global, LLC, Case No. 24-cv-2952 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 15, 2025).
Linfo sued Aero Global alleging infringement of a patent directed to a system with methods and a user interface for discovering and presenting information in text content with different view formats. The patented system would allow a user to sort through online hotel reviews, for example, by toggling a button to show only positive comments, or only comments related to room service.
One week after filing its complaint, Linfo proposed an early-stage settlement of $49,000, which Aero Global did not accept. Subsequently, in a separate case involving the same patent, another judge in the Southern District of New York found the patent invalid. After Aero notified the court of the decision, Linfo sought to dismiss the case without prejudice, and Aero opposed. Linfo then requested a stay pending appeal of the other’s judge’s decision, which the court denied. Linfo then contacted Aero to propose the parties “walk away to close the matter.” Aero responded that it would agree to dismissal if Linfo reimbursed Aero for its fees incurred. Linfo did not respond, after which the court concluded that Linfo was collaterally estopped from asserting infringement of the patent and granted Aero’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
Aero thereafter sought attorneys’ fees under § 285, arguing that the asserted patent was objectively invalid under § 101. The district court agreed, finding that the litany of cases published after the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice v. CLS decision should have made clear to Linfo and its counsel that the asserted patent was directed precisely to the kind of abstract concept that Alice deemed unpatentable. Linfo argued that since the patent was issued after the Alice decision, it was reasonable for Linfo to assume the patent examiner considered Alice as part of the USPTO’s decision-making process. The district court rejected this argument, finding no evidence that the USPTO evaluated whether the patent was directed to patent eligible subject matter and, more importantly, finding that numerous cases post-dating the patent’s issuance invalidated patents similar to Linfo’s patent.
Linfo argued that it was reasonable for it to continue the case because it received favorable claim construction rulings and litigated against other defendants that had not filed § 101 challenges. The court rejected this argument, explaining that judicial construction of a patent claim after a claim construction hearing says little about whether that claim is eligible under § 101, given that claim construction and patent eligibility are distinct inquiries.
The court considered Linfo’s and its attorney’s litigation history and found several indicia suggesting that Linfo and its counsel brought this case to induce settlement rather than to reach the merits. The court noted that Linfo had asserted the challenged patent 80 times across 11 courts in the past four years, and almost none of the cases reached the merits. The court also noted that numerous courts had sanctioned Linfo’s counsel for bringing frivolous lawsuits, among other things.
Accordingly, the district court granted Aero’s motion for attorneys’ fees.
