The U.S. government is asking the Court of Federal Claims to throw out a would-be class action seeking to recover for patent owners who’ve lost claims in America Invents Act (AIA) proceedings.

Criticizing the 58-page complaint in Christy v. United States as “unnecessarily prolix,” the government accuses plaintiffs counsel at Birmingham-based Heninger Garrison Davis of succumbing to “the popular myth that a patent is a contract” between patent owner and government.