Patent Owner Balks At Fee Award, Cites Newly Issued—and Similar—patent

Garfum.com's new invention. (credit: USPTO) A New Jersey man named Michael Garofalo had a patent he claimed covered online contests, and used it to demand money from other small businesses. But when the Electronic Frontier Foundation came to the defense of a photographer targeted by Garofalo last year, Garofalo quickly dropped his case. Last month, he and his lawyers were ordered to pay $29,000 in legal fees. Now Garofalo, who owns the website Garfum.com, is asking for the fee smackdown to be reconsidered. His reasoning: since the US Patent and Trademark Office recently agreed to grant him another patent, nearly identical to the first, his case couldn't possibly be considered "exceptional." "This new evidence shows that this case does not lack substantive strength," writes Garfum.com's lawyers, from the Texas-based Austin Hansley law firm.