§4304 Award of Costs, Including Attorney’s Fees, to Substantially Prevailing Party; Offset

Summary

Courts must, at the end of a lawsuit about a joint venture or standards-setting by a standards organization, make the mostly winning side get the legal costs for that claim, including a reasonable attorney’s fee. If the defender mostly wins, the court may give them costs and fees only when the claim or the claimant’s behavior in the case was frivolous, unreasonable, without foundation, or in bad faith. The court can reduce or cancel any award if another party acted in a frivolous, unreasonable, baseless, or bad-faith way during the litigation and caused costs. These rules do not apply to someone who (1) took part directly in the standards activity found to violate antitrust law, (2) is not a full-time employee of the standards group, and (3) works in a business (or for an employer) likely to benefit directly from that standards activity.