Sri International, Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc. ( 2021 )


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  • Case: 20-1685     Document: 48    Page: 1     Filed: 09/28/2021
    United States Court of Appeals
    for the Federal Circuit
    ______________________
    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.,
    Plaintiff-Appellant
    v.
    CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.,
    Defendant-Cross-Appellant
    ______________________
    2020-1685, 2020-1704
    ______________________
    Appeals from the United States District Court for the
    District of Delaware in No. 1:13-cv-01534-RGA-SRF, Judge
    Richard G. Andrews.
    ______________________
    Decided: September 28, 2021
    ______________________
    FRANK SCHERKENBACH, Fish & Richardson, PC, Bos-
    ton, MA, argued for plaintiff-appellant. Also represented
    by ROBERT COURTNEY, Minneapolis, MN; HOWARD G.
    POLLACK, Redwood City, CA; JOHN WINSTON THORNBURGH,
    San Diego, CA.
    ANDREW J. DANFORD, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale
    and Dorr LLP, Boston, MA, argued for defendant-cross-ap-
    pellant. Also represented by ANNALEIGH E. CURTIS,
    LAUREN B. FLETCHER, WILLIAM F. LEE, LOUIS W. TOMPROS.
    ______________________
    Case: 20-1685     Document: 48     Page: 2     Filed: 09/28/2021
    2              SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    Before LOURIE, O’MALLEY, and STOLL, Circuit Judges.
    STOLL, Circuit Judge.
    SRI International, Inc. appeals the United States Dis-
    trict Court for the District of Delaware’s denial of its mo-
    tion to reinstate the jury’s willfulness verdict and to
    reinstate the district court’s award of enhanced damages.
    Cisco Systems, Inc. cross-appeals the district court’s award
    of attorney fees and expenses. Because substantial evi-
    dence supports the jury’s finding of willful infringement,
    we reverse the district court’s denial of SRI’s motion to re-
    instate the willfulness verdict. Having restored the jury’s
    willfulness finding, we also restore the district court’s
    award of enhanced damages. Finally, we affirm the district
    court’s award of attorney fees.
    BACKGROUND
    This is the second appeal in this case. SRI filed suit in
    the District of Delaware alleging that Cisco infringed cer-
    tain claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,711,615 and 6,484,203
    (the “asserted patents”). The ’615 patent is titled “Network
    Surveillance” and is a continuation of the ’203 patent,
    which is titled “Hierarchical Event Monitoring and Analy-
    sis.” A jury trial was held on validity, infringement, willful
    infringement, and damages. See SRI Int’l, Inc. v. Cisco
    Sys., Inc. (SRI I), 
    254 F. Supp. 3d 680
     (D. Del. 2017). The
    jury found that the accused Cisco products infringed cer-
    tain claims of the asserted patents and awarded a 3.5% rea-
    sonable royalty for a total of $23,660,000 in compensatory
    damages. The jury also found that Cisco’s infringement
    was willful.
    After trial, Cisco moved for judgment as a matter of law
    (JMOL) of no willful infringement and SRI moved for at-
    torney fees and enhanced damages. Regarding the jury’s
    willfulness finding, the district court determined that sub-
    stantial evidence—including that certain Cisco employees
    did not read the asserted patents until their depositions,
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    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.             3
    that Cisco designed the products in an infringing manner,
    and that Cisco instructed its customers to use those prod-
    ucts in an infringing manner—supported the jury’s willful-
    ness finding. 
    Id.
     at 716–17.
    The district court also awarded SRI attorney fees and
    costs. 
    Id. at 723
    . The district court noted that “Cisco pur-
    sued litigation about as aggressively as the court has seen
    in its judicial experience” and that this litigation strategy
    “created a substantial amount of work for both SRI and the
    court, much of which work was needlessly repetitive or ir-
    relevant or frivolous.” 
    Id.
     at 722–23 (footnotes omitted). In
    awarding fees, the district court also took into account “the
    fact that the jury found that Cisco’s infringement was will-
    ful.” 
    Id. at 723
    .
    With respect to enhancement of damages based on the
    jury’s willfulness finding, the district court doubled the
    damages award. 
    Id.
     at 723–24. The district court ex-
    plained that enhancement was appropriate “given Cisco’s
    litigation conduct, its status as the world’s largest network-
    ing company, its apparent disdain for SRI and its business
    model, and the fact that Cisco lost on all issues during sum-
    mary judgment and trial, despite its formidable efforts to
    the contrary.” 
    Id. at 723
    .
    Cisco appealed the district court’s denial of JMOL of no
    willful infringement and its grant of enhanced damages
    and attorney fees. We vacated and remanded on each of
    those issues. See SRI Int’l, Inc. v. Cisco Sys, Inc. (SRI II),
    
    930 F.3d 1295
    , 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2019). First, we held that
    the jury’s verdict of willful infringement before May 8, 2012
    was not supported by substantial evidence because it was
    undisputed that Cisco did not know of SRI’s patents until
    after that date. 
    Id.
     at 1309–10. We stated that for the time
    period prior to May 8, 2012, “the record is insufficient to
    establish that Cisco’s conduct rose to the level of wanton,
    malicious, and bad-faith behavior required for willful in-
    fringement.” Id. at 1309. We also criticized the evidence
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    4              SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    the district court identified as supporting the jury’s willful-
    ness verdict. For example, we explained that “it was unre-
    markable” that two Cisco employees identified in the
    appellate record merely as engineers did not review the pa-
    tents until their depositions. Id. We vacated the district
    court’s denial of JMOL of no willful infringement and re-
    manded the case to the district court to decide in the first
    instance whether the jury’s finding of willful infringement
    after May 8, 2012 (the date Cisco received notice) was sup-
    ported by substantial evidence. Id. We likewise vacated
    the district court’s enhanced damages award because it
    was predicated on the finding of willful infringement. In
    addition, we vacated the award of attorney fees because it
    was partly based on the finding of willful infringement.
    On remand, the district court reasonably read our opin-
    ion to require a more stringent standard for willful in-
    fringement than our other cases suggest—conduct rising to
    “the level of wanton, malicious, and bad-faith behavior.”
    SRI Int’l, Inc. v. Cisco Sys., Inc. (SRI III), Civil Action
    No. 13-1534-RGA, 
    2020 WL 1285915
    , at *1 (D. Del. Mar.
    18, 2020). Based on this standard, the district court in
    SRI III held that substantial evidence did not support the
    jury verdict of willful infringement after May 8, 2012.
    The district court in SRI III also reviewed the jury in-
    structions on willful infringement, which neither party
    ever challenged on appeal. The instructions directed the
    jury to consider whether Cisco “acted despite a high likeli-
    hood that [its] actions infringed a valid and enforceable pa-
    tent.” Id. at *2. The jury was further instructed that, if it
    answered this question affirmatively, it should also deter-
    mine whether Cisco “actually knew or should have known
    that its actions constituted an unjustifiably high risk of in-
    fringement of a valid and enforceable patent.” Id. To de-
    termine whether Cisco had this state of mind, the jury was
    instructed to consider the following factors:
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    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.              5
    One, whether or not defendant acted in accordance
    with the standards of commerce for its industry.
    Two, whether or not defendant intentionally copied
    a product of plaintiff’s that is covered by the pa-
    tents-in-suit.
    Three, whether or not there is a reasonable basis to
    believe that defendant did not infringe or had a rea-
    sonable defense to infringement.
    Four, whether or not defendant made a good-faith
    effort to avoid infringing the patents-in-suit, for ex-
    ample, whether defendant attempted to design
    around the patents-in-suit.
    And, five, whether or not defendant tried to cover
    up its infringement.
    Id. at *2–3.
    Regarding attorney fees, the district court noted that
    even though it removed the willfulness finding it had par-
    tially relied on in awarding fees, there was nevertheless
    sufficient reason to maintain the fees award. Id. at *4. It
    again found the case “exceptional” and accordingly granted
    the renewed motion for attorney fees and expenses. Id.
    at *5.
    SRI appeals the district court’s JMOL of no willful in-
    fringement and the denial of its motion to reinstate the
    jury’s willfulness verdict and to reinstate the district
    court’s award of enhanced damages. Cisco cross-appeals
    the district court’s award of attorney fees. We have juris-
    diction under 
    28 U.S.C. § 1295
    (a)(1).
    DISCUSSION
    We review a grant of JMOL of no willfulness under the
    same standard as the district court, for substantial evi-
    dence. Johns Hopkins Univ. v. CellPro, Inc., 
    152 F.3d 1342
    ,
    1354, 1363 (Fed. Cir. 1998); MobileMedia Ideas LLC
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    6              SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    v. Apple Inc., 
    780 F.3d 1159
    , 1164 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (citing
    Pitts v. Delaware, 
    646 F.3d 151
    , 155 (3d Cir. 2011)). We
    review a district court’s decision regarding the amount of
    enhanced damages for an abuse of discretion. Halo Elecs.,
    Inc. v. Pulse Elecs., Inc., 
    136 S. Ct. 1923
    , 1934 (2016). Like-
    wise, we review an award of attorney fees pursuant to
    
    35 U.S.C. § 285
     for an abuse of discretion. Highmark Inc.
    v. Allcare Health Mgmt. Sys., Inc., 
    572 U.S. 559
    , 564
    (2014).
    I
    A
    In SRI II, we held that there was no willful infringe-
    ment as a matter of law before Cisco had notice on May 8,
    2012. We did not decide whether substantial evidence sup-
    ported the jury verdict of willful infringement after May 8,
    2012. Rather, we remanded for the district court to deter-
    mine this issue in the first instance. We now hold that that
    substantial evidence supports the jury’s finding of willful
    infringement after May 8, 2012. We do not disturb SRI II’s
    holding that there was no willful infringement before
    May 8, 2012.
    First, we presume, as we must, that consistent with the
    jury instructions, the jury found that Cisco had no reason-
    able basis to believe that it did not infringe or that it had a
    reasonable defense to infringement. 1 See SSL Servs., LLC
    1    See jury instructions, supra. The jury was in-
    structed under the Seagate willful infringement standard,
    which required both (1) “clear and convincing evidence that
    the infringer acted despite an objectively high likelihood
    that its actions constituted infringement of a valid patent”
    and (2) that “this objectively-defined risk . . . was either
    known or so obvious that it should have been known.” In
    re Seagate Tech., LLC, 
    497 F.3d 1360
    , 1371 (Fed. Cir.
    2007). Since that decision, the Supreme Court issued Halo
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    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.             7
    v. Citrix Sys., Inc., 
    769 F.3d 1073
    , 1082 (Fed. Cir. 2014)
    (generally, “[w]e presume that the jury resolved the under-
    lying factual disputes in favor of the verdict and review
    those factual findings for substantial evidence” (citing Ki-
    netic Concepts, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., 
    688 F.3d 1342
    , 1356–57 (Fed. Cir. 2012))).
    SRI presented evidence that Cisco’s invalidity defenses
    were unreasonable. Cisco’s only assertion of invalidity over
    the prior art was based on anticipation by a reference that
    was twice considered and twice rejected by the Patent Of-
    fice. See SRI I, 254 F. Supp. 3d at 722 n.52. SRI’s expert
    testified that this reference was lacking a key limitation of
    the claims—the requirement for multiple network moni-
    tors. Moreover, Cisco’s expert had not even seen (let alone
    distinguished) the Patent Office’s prior analysis rejecting
    this same prior art during the reexamination of the as-
    serted patents before that expert opined that this prior art
    anticipated the claims.
    SRI also presented evidence to the jury that Cisco did
    not have any reasonable basis for non-infringement. For
    example, as its only non-infringement argument for one of
    two sets of product groupings, Cisco maintained through-
    out trial that the claims required separate monitors, which
    its products did not have. Id. at 722. SRI countered that
    this non-infringement defense was untethered to the dis-
    trict court’s claim construction of a “network monitor,”
    which expressed no such requirement. See J.A. 22228
    (Trial Tr. 1934:13–21) (stating that “during the entire time
    Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics., Inc., 
    136 S. Ct. 1923
    (2016), which rejected the objective recklessness require-
    ment. Because Halo did not disturb the substantive stand-
    ard for subjective willfulness, we have held that we may
    review the jury’s verdict for substantial evidence under
    that standard. See Arctic Cat Inc. v. Bombardier Recrea-
    tional Prods. Inc., 
    876 F.3d 1350
    , 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2017).
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    8              SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    that Cisco was putting on its infringement case . . . you
    never once saw the Court’s construction of network monitor
    hit the screen, not once”). In SRI I, the district court noted
    this disconnect, explaining that although the court “had ex-
    plained that ‘[t]he claim language and the parties’ con-
    structions do not require that the “network monitor” and
    “hierarchical monitor” be separate structures’ [], Cisco
    maintained throughout trial that separate monitors were
    required.” 254 F. Supp. 3d at 722 (first alteration in origi-
    nal).
    Likewise, as its only non-infringement argument for
    the second set of product groupings, Cisco asserted that
    while the claims require that the products correlate events,
    its products process events one at a time, i.e., they do not
    correlate events. At trial, SRI presented directly contradic-
    tory evidence. For example, SRI identified an internal
    Cisco document that shows a “Meta Event Generator”
    plainly depicting a hierarchical arrangement of monitors
    correlating multiple events. J.A. 38708. Cisco’s own tech-
    nical witness similarly acknowledged that this “Meta
    Event Generator” functions to correlate events. J.A. 21813
    (Trial Tr. 1519:3–5) (“Meta is specialized to combine events
    into a bigger event.”). Further combined with testimony
    from SRI’s expert that the accused products correlate
    events, Cisco-customer testimony that Cisco’s product cor-
    relates events, and third-party testing confirming the
    same, the jury had a reasonable basis to believe that Cisco
    did not have any reasonable defenses to infringement.
    In addition, the jury found that Cisco induced infringe-
    ment of the asserted claims, and Cisco does not challenge
    that finding on appeal. See SRI I, 254 F. Supp. 3d at 700.
    As explained in SRI I, the court instructed the jury that
    “Defendant is liable for active inducement only if plaintiff
    proves by a preponderance of the evidence” that, among
    other things, (1) “Defendant took some action intending to
    encourage or instruct its customers to perform acts that
    you, the jury, find would directly infringe”; and (2)
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    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.             9
    “Defendant was aware of the asserted patents at the time
    of the alleged conduct and knew that its customer’s acts (if
    taken) would constitute infringement of an asserted pa-
    tent.” Id. at 719 (emphasis omitted). Based on these un-
    challenged jury instructions, we may presume that the jury
    found that Cisco knew of the patent, took action to encour-
    age its customers to infringe, and knew that its customers
    actions (if taken) would infringe. Such unchallenged find-
    ings may support a jury’s finding of willful infringement.
    To be clear, a finding of induced infringement does not
    compel a finding of willfulness. Indeed, the standard re-
    quired for willful infringement is different than that re-
    quired for induced infringement. Nonetheless, in this case,
    the jury’s unchallenged findings on induced infringement,
    when combined with Cisco’s lack of reasonable bases for its
    infringement and invalidity defenses, provide sufficient
    support for the jury’s finding of willful infringement for the
    period after May 8, 2012, when Cisco had notice of the pa-
    tent.
    Finally, we address the district court’s statement in
    SRI III that the Federal Circuit “made clear that the stand-
    ard for willfulness” applicable on remand is “whether
    ‘Cisco’s conduct rose to the level of wanton, malicious, and
    bad-faith behavior required for willful infringement.’”
    SRI III, 
    2020 WL 1285915
    , at *1 (quoting SRI II, 930 F.3d
    at 1309). The district court also noted that “the Court of
    Appeals is not entirely consistent in its use of adjectives to
    describe what is required for willfulness.” SRI III, 
    2020 WL 1285915
    , at *1 n.1. To eliminate the confusion created
    by our reference to the language “wanton, malicious, and
    bad-faith” in Halo, we clarify that it was not our intent to
    create a heightened requirement for willful infringement.
    Indeed, that sentence from Halo refers to “conduct war-
    ranting enhanced damages,” not conduct warranting a
    finding of willfulness. Halo, 136 S. Ct. at 1932 (“The sort
    of conduct warranting enhanced damages has been vari-
    ously described in our cases as willful, wanton, malicious,
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    10             SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    bad-faith, deliberate, consciously wrongful, flagrant, or—
    indeed—characteristic of a pirate.”) As we said in Eko
    Brands, “[u]nder Halo, the concept of ‘willfulness’ requires
    a jury to find no more than deliberate or intentional in-
    fringement.” Eko Brands, LLC v. Adrian Rivera Maynez
    Enters., Inc., 
    946 F.3d 1367
    , 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (citing
    Halo, 136 S. Ct. at 1933).
    Under the proper test for willfulness, and considering
    the presumed jury findings above, we conclude that sub-
    stantial evidence supports the jury’s willful infringement
    finding. We thus reverse the district court’s JMOL of no
    willful infringement and reinstate the jury verdict of will-
    ful infringement.
    B
    We next turn to SRI’s request to reinstate the award of
    enhanced damages. Although willfulness is a component
    of enhancement, “an award of enhanced damages does not
    necessarily flow from a willfulness finding.” Presidio Com-
    ponents, Inc. v. Am. Tech. Ceramics Corp., 
    875 F.3d 1369
    ,
    1382 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (first citing Halo, 136 S. Ct. at 1932;
    and then citing WBIP, LLC v. Kohler Co., 
    829 F.3d 1317
    ,
    1341 n.13 (Fed. Cir. 2016)). Discretion remains with the
    district court to determine whether the conduct is suffi-
    ciently egregious to warrant enhanced damages. WBIP,
    829 F.3d at 1341 n.13; Halo, 136 S. Ct. at 1934 (“Sec-
    tion 284 gives district courts discretion in meting out en-
    hanced damages.”). We review the district court’s decision
    to award enhanced damages for an abuse of discretion.
    Halo, 136 S. Ct. at 1934. Thus, a decision of enhancement
    cannot stand if “it was based on a clear error of fact, an
    error of law, or a manifest error of judgment.” Va. Panel
    Corp. v. MAC Panel Co., 
    133 F.3d 860
    , 867 (Fed. Cir. 1997)
    (quoting Nat’l Presto Indus., Inc. v. W. Bend Co., 
    76 F.3d 1185
    , 1193 (Fed. Cir. 1996)); see Halo, 136 S. Ct. at 1934
    (“That standard allows for review of district court decisions
    informed by ‘the considerations we have identified.’”
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    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.               11
    (quoting Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness,
    Inc., 
    572 U.S. 545
    , 554 (2014))).
    In this case, the district court in SRI I awarded double
    damages. The district court explained that enhanced dam-
    ages were appropriate “given Cisco’s litigation conduct, its
    status as the world’s largest networking company, its ap-
    parent disdain for SRI and its business model, and the fact
    that Cisco lost on all issues during summary judgment and
    trial, despite its formidable efforts to the contrary.” SRI I,
    254 F. Supp. 3d at 723–24. In doing so, the district court
    appropriately considered the factors laid out in Read Corp.
    v. Portec, Inc., including at least “the infringer’s behavior
    as a party to the litigation,” the infringer’s “size and finan-
    cial condition,” the infringer’s “motivation for harm,” and
    the “[c]loseness of the case.” 
    970 F.2d 816
    , 826–27
    (Fed. Cir. 1992), abrogated in part on other grounds by
    Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 
    517 U.S. 370
    , 116
    (1996); see SRI I, 254 F. Supp. 3d. at 721. We discern no
    clearly erroneous factual findings, erroneous conclusions of
    law, or a clear error of judgment amounting to an abuse of
    discretion. We also conclude that vacating and remanding
    for the district court to decide the issue anew would serve
    little purpose given that the district court in SRI I already
    properly considered this issue. 2
    2    It may seem inappropriate to reinstate the en-
    hancement award in SRI I when we held in SRI II that the
    willfulness finding should have been limited to willfulness
    after May 8, 2012. But neither party makes this argument
    and for good reason. The parties informed this court for
    the first time in this appeal that the district court’s award
    of double damages in SRI I applied only to damages for in-
    fringing activity after notice was given to Cisco, i.e., after
    May 8, 2012. The jury did not award any pre-notice dam-
    ages to SRI because it was only instructed to award dam-
    ages after May 8, 2012.
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    12             SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    We are unpersuaded by Cisco’s arguments that SRI for-
    feited its right to enhanced damages by failing to challenge
    the district court’s assessment of enhancement in SRI III.
    Notably, the district court in SRI III did not conduct an
    analysis of enhancement because it entered JMOL of no
    willful infringement. Though the court stated that it “will
    deny the motion to amend the willfulness judgment and
    award enhanced damages,” that sentence must be read in
    context of the entire opinion. SRI III, 
    2020 WL 1285915
    ,
    at *4. The district court began its analysis by pointing to
    what it believed was the standard for willfulness. Id. at *1.
    It then conducted its assessment of willfulness, repeatedly
    mentioning the jury’s willfulness verdict and SRI’s argu-
    ments with regard to willfulness; not once did the district
    court discuss enhancement in this assessment. Only after
    determining that substantial evidence did not support the
    jury verdict of willful infringement did the district court
    also, without analysis, deny enhanced damages. It is thus
    clear to us that the district court in SRI III denied the mo-
    tion to reinstate the award of enhanced damages only be-
    cause it denied the motion to reinstate the jury’s
    willfulness finding. Because we reinstate the jury’s will-
    fulness verdict, we likewise restore the district court’s
    award of double damages in SRI I.
    II
    We next turn to Cisco’s cross-appeal challenging the
    district court’s grant of SRI’s motion for attorney fees. Un-
    der 
    35 U.S.C. § 285
    , a “court in exceptional cases may
    award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.”
    An “exceptional” case is “one that stands out from others
    with respect to the substantive strength of a party’s litigat-
    ing position (considering both the governing law and the
    facts of the case) or the unreasonable manner in which the
    case was litigated.” Octane Fitness, 572 U.S. at 554. We
    review a district court’s grant or denial of attorney fees for
    an abuse of discretion. See Highmark, 572 U.S. at 564;
    Bayer CropScience AG v. Dow AgroSciences LLC, 851 F.3d
    Case: 20-1685     Document: 48      Page: 13        Filed: 09/28/2021
    SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.               13
    1302, 1306 (Fed. Cir. 2017). A district court abuses its dis-
    cretion when it “base[s] its ruling on an erroneous view of
    the law or on a clearly erroneous assessment of the evi-
    dence.” Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC
    v. Guardian Prot. Servs., Inc., 
    858 F.3d 1383
    , 1387
    (Fed. Cir. 2017) (alteration in original) (quoting Highmark,
    572 U.S. at 563 n.2).
    As we explained in SRI II, we see no error in the dis-
    trict court’s determination that this was an exceptional
    case. 930 F.3d at 1310–11. The district court’s initial find-
    ings remain persuasive:
    There can be no doubt from even a cursory review
    of the record that Cisco pursued litigation about as
    aggressively as the court has seen in its judicial ex-
    perience. While defending a client aggressively is
    understandable, if not laudable, in the case at bar,
    Cisco crossed the line in several regards.
    SRI I, 254 F. Supp. 3d at 722. Moreover, the district court’s
    initial decision explained that “Cisco’s litigation strate-
    gies . . . created a substantial amount of work for both SRI
    and the court, much of which work was needlessly repeti-
    tive or irrelevant or frivolous.” Id. at 723 (footnotes omit-
    ted). Indeed, the district court conducted a thorough
    inventory of Cisco’s aggressive tactics, including maintain-
    ing nineteen invalidity theories until the eve of trial but
    ultimately presenting only two at trial, presenting weak
    non-infringement theories that were contrary to the dis-
    trict court’s claim construction ruling and Cisco’s own in-
    ternal documents, exhaustive summary judgment and
    sanction efforts, over-designation of deposition testimony
    for trial, and asserting “every line of defense post-trial.” Id.
    at 722–23. We nonetheless vacated because the district
    court relied in part on the fact that the jury found that
    Cisco’s infringement was willful in its determination to
    award attorney fees.
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    14             SRI INTERNATIONAL, INC.   v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
    Here, the district court reconsidered attorney fees in
    the absence of a willfulness finding, and again found this
    case to be “exceptional,” justifying a full award of attorney
    fees. SRI III, 
    2020 WL 1285915
    , at *4–5. Upon reconsid-
    eration, the district court explained that “Cisco’s entire
    case was weak, yet it pursued the case aggressively and in
    an unreasonable manner anyway.” Id. at *5. We see no
    abuse of discretion by the district court in this regard and
    affirm its award of attorney fees.
    CONCLUSION
    We have considered the parties’ remaining arguments
    and find them unpersuasive. For the foregoing reasons, we
    affirm the district court’s grant of attorney fees, reverse the
    district court’s JMOL of no willful infringement, reinstate
    the jury’s finding of willfulness, and reinstate the award of
    enhanced damages.
    AFFIRMED-IN-PART AND REVERSED-IN-PART
    COSTS
    No costs.