1 (Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2013

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.


## SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v . ICON HEALTH & FITNESS,
INC.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT

No. 12–1184. Argued February 26, 2014—Decided April 29, 2014

The Patent Act’s fee-shifting provis ion authorizes district courts to

award attorney’s fees to prevailing pa rties in “exceptional cases.” 35
U. S. C. §285. In Brooks Furniture Mfg., Inc. v. Dutailier Int’l, Inc., 393 F. 3d 1378, 1381, the Federal Circuit defined an “exceptional
case” as one which either involves “material inappropriate conduct” or is both “objectively baseless” and “brought in subjective bad faith.”

Brooks Furniture also requires that partie s establish the “exception

al” nature of a case by “clear and convincing evidence.” Id. , at 1382.

Respondent ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., sued petitioner Octane Fitness, LLC, for patent infringe ment. The District Court granted summary judgment to Octane. Octane then moved for attorney’s fees under §285. The District Court denied the motion under the Brooks

Furniture framework, finding ICON’s clai m to be neither objectively baseless nor brought in subjective bad faith. The Federal Circuit af

firmed.

Held : The Brooks Furniture framework is unduly rigid and impermissi

bly encumbers the statutory grant of discretion to district courts. Pp. 7–12.

(a) Section 285 imposes one and on ly one constraint on district courts’ discretion to award attorney’s fees: The power is reserved for “exceptional” cases. Because the Patent Act does not define “excep

tional,” the term is construed “in accordance with [its] ordinary meaning.” Sebelius v. Cloer , 569 U. S. ___, ___. In 1952, when Con

gress used the word in §285 (and today, for that matter), “[e]xceptional” meant “uncommon,” “r are,” or “not ordinary.” Web

ster’s New International Dictionary 889 (2d ed. 1934). An “excep

tional” case, then, is simply one that stands out from others with re

-2 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Syllabus

spect to the substantive strength of a party’s litigating position (con

sidering both the governing law and the facts of the case) or the un

reasonable manner in which the case was litigated. District courts may determine whether a case is “e xceptional” in the case-by-case exercise of their discretion, cons idering the totality of the circum

stances. Cf. Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. , 510 U. S. 517. Pp. 7–8.

(b) The Brooks Furniture framework superimposes an inflexible framework onto statutory text that is inherently flexible. Pp. 8–11. (1) Brooks Furniture is too restrictive in defining the two catego

ries of cases in which fee awards are allowed. The first category— cases involving litigation or certain other misconduct—appears to ex

tend largely to independently sanctionable conduct. But that is not the appropriate benchmark. A district court may award fees in the rare case in which a party’s unreasonable, though not independently sanctionable, conduct is so “exception al” as to justify an award. For litigation to fall within the second category, a district court must de

termine that the litigation is both objectively baseless and brought in subjective bad faith. But a case presenting either subjective bad faith or exceptionally meritless claims may sufficiently set itself apart from mine-run cases to be “exceptional.” The Federal Circuit imported this second category from Professional Real Estate Inves

tors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. , 508 U. S. 49, but that case’s standard finds no roots in §285’s text and makes little sense in the context of the exceptional-case determination. Pp. 8–10. (2) Brooks Furniture is so demanding that it would appear to render §285 largely superfluous. Because courts already possess the inherent power to award fees in cases involving misconduct or bad faith, see Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society , 421 U. S. 240, 258–259, this Court has declined to construe fee-shifting provi

sions narrowly so as to avoid rend ering them superfluous. See, e.g. , Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC , 434 U. S. 412, 419. Pp. 10–11. (3) Brooks Furniture ’s requirement that proof of entitlement to fees be made by clear and convincing evidence is not justified by §285, which imposes no specific evidentiary burden. Nor has this Court interpreted comparable fee-shif ting statutes to require such a burden of proof. See, e.g. , Fogerty , 510 U. S, at 519. P. 11.

496 Fed. Appx. 57, reversed and remanded.

S OTOMAYOR

, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which R OBERTS

, C. J., and K ENNEDY , T HOMAS , G INSBURG , B REYER , A LITO , and K AGAN

, JJ., joined, and in which S CALIA

, J., joined except as to footnotes 1–3._________________

_________________ 1 Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash

ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.


## SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

No. 12–1184

OCTANE FITNESS, LLC, PETITIONER v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT

[April 29, 2014]

J USTICE S OTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court.*

Section 285 of the Patent A ct authorizes a district court to award attorney’s fees in pa tent litigation. It provides, in its entirety, that “[t]he court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.” 35 U. S. C. §285. In Brooks Furniture Mfg., Inc. v. Dutailier Int’l, Inc. , 393 F. 3d 1378 (2005), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that “[a] case may be deemed exceptional” under §285 only in two lim

ited circumstances: “when ther e has been some material inappropriate conduct,” or when the litigation is both “brought in subjective bad faith” and “objectively base

less.” Id., at 1381. The question before us is whether the

Brooks Furniture framework is consistent with the statu

tory text. We hold that it is not.

I
A
Prior to 1946, the Patent Act did not authorize the awarding of attorney’s fees to the prevailing party in

——————

* J USTICE S CALIA joins this opinion except as to footnotes 1–3.2 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Opinion of the Court

patent litigation. Rather, the “American Rule” governed:

“ ‘[E]ach litigant pa[id] his own attorney’s fees, win or
lose . . . .’ ” Marx v. General Revenue Corp. , 568 U. S. ___, ___ (2013) (slip op., at 9). In 1946, Congress amended the Patent Act to add a discretionary fee-shifting provision, then codified in §70, which stated that a court “may in its discretion award reasonable attorney’s fees to the prevail

ing party upon the entry of judgment in any patent case.” 35 U. S. C. §70 (1946 ed.). 1 Courts did not award fees under §70 as a matter of course. They viewed the award of fees not “as a penalty for failure to win a patent infringement suit,” but as ap

propriate “only in extraordinary circumstances.” Park-InTheatres, Inc. v. Perkins , 190 F. 2d 137, 142 (CA9 1951). The provision enabled them to address “unfairness or bad faith in the conduct of the losing party, or some other equitable consideration of similar force,” which made a case so unusual as to warrant fee-shifting. Ibid. ; see also Pennsylvania Crusher Co. v. Bethlehem Steel Co. , 193 F. 2d 445, 451 (CA3 1951) (listing as “adequate justifica

tion[s]” for fee awards “fr aud practiced on the Patent Office or vexatious or unjustified litigation”). Six years later, Congress amended the fee-shifting provision and recodified it as §285. Whereas §70 had specified that a district court could “in its discretion award reasonable attorney’s fees to the prevailing party,” the revised language of §285 (which remains in force today) provides that “[t]he court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.” We have observed, in interpreting the damages provision of the Patent Act, that the addition of the phrase “exceptional

——————

1 This provision did “not contemplat[e] that the recovery of attorney’s fees [would] become an ordinary thing in patent suits . . . .” S. Rep. No. 79–1503, p. 2 (1946).3 Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)

Opinion of the Court

cases” to §285 was “for purposes of clarification only.” 2 General Motors Corp. v. Devex Corp. , 461 U. S. 648, 653,

n. 8 (1983); see also id., at 652, n. 6. And the parties agree that the recodification did not substantively alter the meaning of the statute. 3 For three decades after the enactment of §285, courts applied it—as they had applied §70—in a discretionary manner, assessing various factors to determine whether a given case was sufficiently “exceptional” to warrant a fee award. See, e.g., True Temper Corp. v. CF&I Steel Corp., 601 F. 2d 495, 508–509 (CA10 1979); Kearney & Trecker Corp. v. Giddings & Lewis, Inc., 452 F. 2d 579, 597 (CA7 1971); Siebring v. Hansen , 346 F. 2d 474, 480–481 (CA8 1965). In 1982, Congress created the Federal Circuit and vested it with exclusive appellate jurisdiction in patent cases. 28 U. S. C. §1295. In the two decades that followed, the Federal Circuit, like the regio nal circuits before it, in

structed district courts to cons ider the totality of the cir

cumstances when making fee determinations under §285. See, e.g., Rohm & Haas Co. v. Crystal Chemical Co., 736
F. 2d 688, 691 (1984) (“Cases decided under §285 have noted that ‘the substitution of the phrase “in exceptional cases” has not done away wi th the discretionary feature’ ”);

——————

2 The Senate Report similarly expl ained that the new provision was “substantially the same as” §70, and that the “ ‘exceptional cases’ ” language was added simply to “expres[s] the intention of the [1946] statute as shown by its legislative history and as interpreted by the courts.” S. Rep. No. 82–1979, p. 30 (1952).

3 See Brief for Petitioner 35 (“[T]his amendment was not intended to create a stricter standard for fee awards, but instead was intended to clarify and endorse the already-existing statutory standard”); Brief for Respondent 17 (“When it enacted §285 , as the historical notes to this provision make clear, Congress adopte d the standards applied by courts interpreting that statut e’s predecessor, §70 of the 1946 statute. Con

gress explained that §285 ‘is substant ially the same as the correspond

ing provision in’ §70”).4 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Opinion of the Court

Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. v. Danbury Pharmacal, Inc. , 231 F. 3d 1339, 1347 (2000) (“In assessing whether a case qualifies as exceptional, the district court must look at the totality of the circumstances”). In 2005, however, the Federal Circuit abandoned that holistic, equitable approach in favor of a more rigid and
mechanical formulation. In Brooks Furniture Mfg., Inc. v. Dutailier Int’l, Inc. , 393 F. 3d 1378 (2005), the court held that a case is “exceptional” under §285 only “when there has been some material inappropriate conduct related to the matter in litigation, such as willful infringement, fraud or inequitable conduct in procuring the patent, misconduct during litigation, vexatious or unjustified litigation, conduct that violates Fed. R. Civ. P. 11, or like
infractions.” Id., at 1381. “Absent misconduct in conduct of the litigation or in securi ng the patent,” the Federal Circuit continued, fees “may be imposed against the pa

tentee only if both (1) the litigation is brought in subjec

tive bad faith, and (2) the litigation is objectively base

less.” Ibid. The Federal Circuit subsequently clarified that litigation is objectively bas eless only if it is “so unrea

sonable that no reasonable litigant could believe it would succeed,” iLOR, LLC v. Google, Inc. , 631 F. 3d 1372, 1378 (2011), and that litigation is brought in subjective bad faith only if the plaintiff “actually know[s]” that it is objec

tively baseless, id., at 1377. 4

——————

4 In Kilopass Technology, Inc. v. Sidense Corp. , 738 F. 3d 1302 (CA Fed 2013)—decided after our grant of certiorari but before we heard oral argument in this case—the Federal Circuit appeared to cut back on the “subjective bad faith” inquiry, holding that the language in iLOR was dictum and that “actual knowledge of baselessness is not required.” 738 F. 3d, at 1310. Rather, the court held, “a defendant need only prove reckless conduct to satisfy the subjective component of the §285 analysis,” ibid. , and courts may “dra[w] an inference of bad faith from
circumstantial evidence thereof when a patentee pursues claims that are devoid of merit,” id., at 1311. Most importantly, the Federal Circuit stated that “[o]bjective baseles sness alone can create a sufficient5 Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)

Opinion of the Court

Finally, Brooks Furniture held that because “[t]here is a presumption that the assertion of infringement of a duly granted patent is made in good faith[,] . . . the underlying improper conduct and the characterization of the case as exceptional must be established by clear and convincing evidence.” 393 F. 3d, at 1382.

B
The parties to this litigation are manufacturers of exer

cise equipment. The respondent, ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., owns U. S. Patent No. 6,019,710 (’710 patent), which discloses an elliptical exercise machine that allows for adjustments to fit the individual stride paths of users. ICON is a major manufacturer of exercise equipment, but it has never commercially sold the machine disclosed in the ’710 patent. The petitioner, Octane Fitness, LLC, also manufactures exercise equipment, including elliptical machines known as the Q45 and Q47. ICON sued Octane, alleging that the Q45 and Q47 infringed several claims of the ’710 patent. The District Court granted Octane’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that Octane’s machines did not infringe ICON’s patent. 2011 WL 2457914 (D Minn., June 17, 2011). Octane then moved for attorney’s fees under §285. Apply

ing the Brooks Furniture standard, the District Court denied Octane’s motion. 2011 WL 3900975 (D Minn., Sept. 6, 2011). It determined that Octane could show neither that ICON’s claim was objectively baseless nor that ICON had brought it in subjective bad faith. As to objective baselessness, the Dis trict Court rejected Octane’s

—————— inference of bad faith to establish exceptionality under §285, unless the
circumstances as a whole show a lack of recklessness on the patentee’s part.” Id. , at 1314. Chief Judge Rader wrote a concurring opinion that sharply criticized Brooks Furniture , 738 F. 3d, at 1318–1320; the court, he said, “should have remained true to its original reading of” §285, id.,

at 1320.6 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Opinion of the Court

argument that the judgment of noninfringement “should have been a foregone conclusion to anyone who visually inspected” Octane’s machines. Id., *2. The court ex

plained that although it had rejected ICON’s infringement arguments, they were neither “frivolous” nor “objectively
baseless.” Id., *2–*3. The court also found no subjective bad faith on ICON’s part, dismissing as insufficient both “the fact that [ICON] is a bigger company which never commercialized the ’710 patent” and an e-mail exchange
between two ICON sales exec utives, which Octane had offered as evidence that ICON had brought the infringe

ment action “as a matter of commercial strategy.” 5 Id., *4. ICON appealed the judgment of noninfringement, and Octane cross-appealed the denial of attorney’s fees. The Federal Circuit affirmed both orders. 496 Fed. Appx. 57 (2012). In upholding the denial of attorney’s fees, it re

jected Octane’s argument that the District Court had “applied an overly restrictive standard in refusing to find the case exceptional under §285.” Id., at 65. The Federal
Circuit declined to “revisit the settled standard for excep

tionality.” Ibid. We granted certiorari, 570 U. S. __ (2013), and now

reverse.

——————

5 One e-mail, sent from ICON’s Vice President of Global Sales to two employees, read: “ ‘We are suing Octane. Not only are we coming out with a greater product to go after them, but throwing a lawsuit on top
of that.’ ” 2011 WL 3900975, *4. One of the recipients then forwarded that e-mail to a third party, along with the accompanying message:
“ ‘Just clearing the way and making sure you guys have all your guns
loaded!’ ” Ibid . More than a year later, that same employee sent an e-mail to the Vice President of Global Sales with the subject, “ ‘I heard we are suing Octane!’ ” Ibid. The executive responded as follows: “ ‘Yes— old patent we had for a long time th at was sitting on the shelf. They are just looking for royalties.’ ” Ibid. The District Court wrote that “in the light most favorable to Octane, these remarks are stray comments by employees with no demonstrat ed connection to the lawsuit.” Ibid.7 Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)

Opinion of the Court

II
The framework established by the Federal Circuit in

Brooks Furniture is unduly rigid, and it impermissibly encumbers the statutory grant of discretion to district

courts.

A
Our analysis begins and ends with the text of §285: “The court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.” Th is text is patently clear. It imposes one and only one constraint on district courts’ discretion to award attorney’s fees in patent litigation: The power is reserved for “exceptional” cases.
The Patent Act does not de fine “exceptional,” so we
construe it “ ‘in accordance with [its] ordinary meaning.’ ”
Sebelius v. Cloer , 569 U. S.

___ ,

___ (2013) (slip op., at 6);
see also Bilski v. Kappos , 561 U. S. 593,

___ (2010) (slip op., at 6) (“In patent law, as in all statutory construction, ‘[u]nless otherwise defined, “words will be interpreted as taking their ordinary, contemporary, common mean

ing”’ ”). In 1952, when Congress used the word in §285 (and today, for that matter), “[e]xceptional” meant “un

common,” “rare,” or “not ordinary.” Webster’s New Inter

national Dictionary 889 (2d ed. 1934); see also 3 Oxford English Dictionary 374 (1933) (defining “exceptional” as “out of the ordinary course,” “unusual,” or “special”); Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 435 (11th ed. 2008) (defining “exceptional” as “rare”); Noxell Corp. v. Firehouse No. 1 Bar-B-Que Restaurant , 771 F. 2d 521, 526 (CADC 1985) (R. B. Ginsburg, J., joined by Scalia, J.) (interpreting the term “exceptional” in the Lanham Act’s identical fee-shifting provision, 15 U. S. C. §1117(a), to mean “uncommon” or “not run-of-the-mill”). We hold, then, that an “exceptional” case is simply one that stands out from others with respect to the substan

tive strength of a party’s lit igating position (considering8 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Opinion of the Court

both the governing law and the facts of the case) or the unreasonable manner in which the case was litigated. District courts may determine whether a case is “excep

tional” in the case-by-case ex ercise of their discretion, considering the totality of the circumstances. 6 As in the comparable context of the Copyright Act, “ ‘[t]here is no precise rule or formula for making these determinations,’ but instead equitable discretion should be exercised ‘in light of the considerations we have identified.’ ” Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. , 510 U. S. 517, 534 (1994).

B

1
The Federal Circuit’s formulation is overly rigid. Under
the standard crafted in Brooks Furniture , a case is “excep

tional” only if a district cou rt either finds litigation-related misconduct of an independently sanctionable magnitude or determines that the litigation was both “brought in subjective bad faith” and “obj ectively baseless.” 393 F. 3d, at 1381. This formulation superimposes an inflexible framework onto statutory text that is inherently flexible. For one thing, the first category of cases in which the Federal Circuit allows fee awards—those involving litiga

tion misconduct or certain other misconduct—appears to extend largely to independentl y sanctionable conduct. See
ibid. (defining litigation-related misconduct to include “willful infringement, fraud or inequitable conduct in procuring the patent, misconduct during litigation, vexa

-

——————

6 In Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. , 510 U. S. 517 (1994), for example, we explained that in determining whet her to award fees under a similar provision in the Copyrigh t Act, district courts could consider a “nonex

clusive” list of “factors,” including “frivolousness, motivation, objective unreasonableness (both in the factual and legal components of the case) and the need in particular circumsta nces to advance considerations of compensation and deterrence.” Id. , at 534, n. 19 (internal quotation marks omitted).9 Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)

Opinion of the Court

tious or unjustified litigation, conduct that violates Fed. R. Civ. P. 11, or like infractions”). But sanctionable conduct is not the appropriate benchmark. Under the standard announced today, a district court may award fees in the rare case in which a party’s unreasonable conduct—while not necessarily independently sanctionable—is nonethe

less so “exceptional” as to justify an award of fees. The second category of cases in which the Federal Cir

cuit allows fee awards is also too restrictive. In order for a
case to fall within this se cond category, a district court
must determine both that the litigation is objectively
baseless and that the plaintiff brought it in subjective bad faith. But a case presenting either subjective bad faith or exceptionally meritless claims may sufficiently set itself apart from mine-run cases to warrant a fee award. Cf.
Noxell , 771 F. 2d, at 526 (“[W]e think it fair to assume that Congress did not intend ri gidly to limit recovery of fees by a [Lanham Act] defendant to the rare case in which a court finds that the plaintiff ‘acted in bad faith, vexatiously, wantonly, or for oppressive reasons’ . . . . Something less than ‘bad faith,’ we believe, suffices to mark a case as ‘exceptional’ ”). ICON argues that the dual requirement of “subjective bad faith” and “objective basel essness” follows from this
Court’s decision in Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc.

v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. , 508 U. S. 49 (1993) ( PRE ), which involved an exception to the NoerrPennington doctrine of antitrust law. It does not. Under

the Noerr-Pennington doctrine—established by Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight,

Inc. , 365 U. S. 127 (1961), and Mine Workers v. Pennington , 381 U. S. 657 (1965)—defendants are immune from antitrust liability for engaging in conduct (including litiga

tion) aimed at influencing decisionmaking by the govern

ment. PRE , 508 U. S., at 56. But under a “sham excep

tion” to this doctrine, “activity ‘ostensibly directed toward10 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Opinion of the Court

influencing governmental action’ does not qualify for

Noerr immunity if it ‘is a mere sham to cover . . . an at

tempt to interfere directly wi th the business relationships of a competitor.’ ” Id. , at 51. In PRE , we held that to qualify as a “sham,” a “lawsuit must be objectively base

less” and must “concea[l] ‘an attempt to interfere directly with the business relationships of a competitor . . . .’ ” Id., at 60–61 (emphasis deleted). In other words, the plaintiff must have brought baseless claims in an attempt to thwart competition ( i.e., in bad faith).

In Brooks Furniture , the Federal Circuit imported the

PRE standard into §285. See 393 F. 3d, at 1381. But the

PRE standard finds no roots in the text of §285, and it makes little sense in the context of determining whether a case is so “exceptional” as to justify an award of attorney’s fees in patent litigation. We crafted the Noerr-Pennington doctrine—and carved out only a narrow exception for “sham” litigation—to avoid chilling the exercise of the First Amendment right to peti tion the government for the redress of grievances. See PRE, 508 U. S., at 56 (“Those who petition government for redress are generally im

mune from antitrust liability”). But to the extent that patent suits are similarly protected as acts of petitioning, it is not clear why the shifting of fees in an “exceptional” case would diminish that right. The threat of antitrust liability (and the attendant treble damages, 15 U. S. C. §15) far more significantly chills the exercise of the right to petition than does the mere shifting of attorney’s fees.
In the Noerr

- Pennington context, defendants seek immun

ity from a judicial declaration that their filing of a lawsuit was actually unlawful; here, they seek immunity from a far less onerous declaration that they should bear the costs of that lawsuit in exceptional cases.

2
We reject Brooks Furniture for another reason: It is so11 Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)

Opinion of the Court

demanding that it would appear to render §285 largely superfluous. We have long recognized a common-law exception to the general “American rule” against fee

shifting—an exception, “inherent” in the “power [of] the courts” that applies for “ ‘willful disobedience of a court
order’ ” or “when the losing party has ‘acted in bad faith, vexatiously, wantonly, or for oppressive reasons . . . .’ ” Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society , 421
U. S. 240, 258–259 (1975). We have twice declined to construe fee-shifting provisions narrowly on the basis that doing so would render them superfluous, given the back

ground exception to the American rule, see Christiansburg
Garment Co. v. EEOC , 434 U. S. 412, 419 (1978); Newman

v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc. , 390 U. S. 400, 402, n. 4 (1968) ( per curiam ), and we again decline to do so here.

3
Finally, we reject the Federal Circuit’s requirement that patent litigants establish their entitlement to fees under §285 by “clear and convincing evidence,” Brooks Furniture

, 393 F. 3d, at 1382. We have not interpreted comparable fee-shifting statutes to require proof of entitlement to fees by clear and convincing evidence. See, e.g., Fogerty , 510
U. S., at 519; Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp. , 496 U. S. 384 (1990); Pierce v. Underwood , 487 U. S. 552, 558 (1988). And nothing in §285 justifies such a high standard of proof. Section 285 demands a simple discretionary inquiry; it imposes no specif ic evidentiary burden, much less such a high one. Indeed, patent-infringement litiga

tion has always been governed by a preponderance of the evidence standard, see, e.g., Béné v. Jeantet , 129 U. S. 683, 688 (1889), and that is the “standard generally applicable in civil actions,” because it “allows both parties to ‘share the risk of error in roughly equal fashion,’ ” Herman &

MacLean v. Huddleston , 459 U. S. 375, 390 (1983).12 OCTANE FITNESS, LLC v. ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC.

Opinion of the Court

* * *
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings con

sistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.