On August 17, 2016, a Pennsylvania federal judge approved a special master's recommendation of $3.9 million in fees to Finnegan client Avid Radiopharmaceuticals. The fees were awarded to Avid for its expenses defending a bad-faith patent suit by Alzheimer's Institute of America (AIA).
The fee request came as a result of a November 2010 patent infringement suit that AIA filed against Avid and the University of Pennsylvania (U Penn), alleging that Avid and U Penn infringed two of its patents. In March 2015, a judge ruled the case was "exceptional" under the 2014 Octane Fitness decision, on the basis that AIA knew that it wasn't the legal owner of the patent when they filed the suit, thus entitling Avid and Penn to attorneys' fees to defend a bad-faith action.