Patent Watch: CBT Flint Partners, LLC v. Return Path, Inc.

To the extent that a party is obligated to produce (or obligated to accept) electronic documents in a particular format or with particular characteristics intact (such as metadata, color, motion, or manipulability), the costs to make duplicates in such a format or with such characteristics preserved are recoverable under [28 U.S.C. § 1920(4)]. But only the costs of creating the produced duplicates are included, not a number of preparatory or ancillary costs commonly incurred leading up to, in conjunction with, or after duplication.

On December 13, 2013, in CBT Flint Partners, LLC v. Return Path, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dyk, O'Malley, Taranto*) reversed-in-part, vacated-in-part and remanded the district court judgment that CBT pay the defendants their costs, which the clerk taxed at $49,824.60 for Return Path and $268,311.12 for Cisco, following the stipulated judgment that the defendants did not infringe U.S. Patents No. 6,192,114 and