By late April, plaintiffs’ lawyers had filed more than 175 false marking lawsuits in district courts around the country in response to the earlier Federal Circuit ruling. Defense lawyers call the cases “nuisance suits” and the filers “bounty hunters.”

On June 10, in Pequignot v. Solo Cup Co., the Federal Circuit affirmed an Eastern District of Virginia summary judgment ruling that Solo Cup isn’t liable for its false labeling of products as patented, also known as false marking.