Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-801_o758.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

Cite as:  589 U. S. ____ (2019) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

fees”);  42  U. S. C.  §247d–6d(e)(9)  (allowing  a  party  to  re-
cover “reasonable expenses incurred . . . , including a rea-
sonable attorney’s fee”). 

The Government cites several decisions to argue how, on
occasion, this Court has used the term “expenses” to mean
“attorney’s  fees.”    None  of  the  cases  furthers  its  position. 
See, e.g., Rimini Street, 586 U. S., at ___, ___ (slip op., at 4, 
11) (reasoning that the term “costs” in the general federal
costs statutes does not include attorney’s fees); Taniguchi 
v. Kan Pacific Saipan, Ltd., 566 U. S. 560, 573 (2012) (men-
tioning that a party may bear “expenses” related to attor-
neys, without specifying whether these “expenses” include 
attorney’s fees); Arlington Central School Dist. Bd. of Ed. v. 
Murphy, 548 U. S. 291, 297–303 (2006) (distinguishing “at-
torney’s  fees”  from  “costs”  and  “costs”  from  “expenses,”
without indicating whether “expenses” encompasses attor-
ney’s fees); Casey, 499 U. S., at 99 (suggesting that an ex-
plicit  reference  to  “expert  witness  fees”  or  “litigation  ex-
penses”  could  shift  expert  fees  in  addition  to  attorney’s
fees—not  that  the  term  “litigation  expenses”  alone  could 
shift attorney’s fees). 

Simply  put,  in  common  statutory  usage,  the  term  “ex-
penses”  alone  has  never  been  considered  to  authorize  an 
award of attorney’s fees with sufficient clarity to overcome
the American Rule presumption. 

C 
In fact, the Patent Act’s history reinforces that Congress

did not intend to shift fees in §145 actions. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Patent  Office,  the  PTO’s 
predecessor,  originally  paid  its  personnel  from  sums  col-
lected from adverse parties in litigation, or that the Office
initially even employed attorneys.  See Act of July 4, 1836,
§9,  5  Stat.  121  (“[T]he  moneys  received  into the  Treasury 
under this act shall constitute a fund for the payment of the
salaries of the officers and clerks herein provided for, and