Eastern District of Texas Awards Epic Systems’ Customer, CHRISTUS Health, Attorneys’ Fees Under § 285 For Meritless Patent Claims By Prolific Patent Troll
On March 28, 2025, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted CHRISTUS Health’s motion for attorneys’ fees in a patent case brought against it by Decapolis Systems LLC, a litigious non-practicing entity that had targeted several EHR providers and hospitals. CHRISTUS Health is a customer of Epic Systems Corporation, which provided a defense to CHRISTUS Health in the litigation. Agreeing with CHRISTUS Health that the case was “exceptional,” the court held Decapolis must reimburse CHRISTUS Health’s attorneys’ fees for the litigation—totaling $643,248.03. CHRISTUS Health’s victory comes after Epic won its own motion for attorneys’ fees against Decapolis on July 30, 2024, in the Southern District of Florida, bringing the total fees assessed against Decapolis to over $1.2 Million.
Epic brought an affirmative court action in the Southern District of Florida seeking to invalidate the patents after Decapolis had sued multiple Epic customers contending that use of Epic’s software infringed those patents. On December 2, 2022, the Florida court held that the patents are invalid, a decision affirmed by the Federal Circuit on appeal. While 24 other entities—including other EHR vendors—entered into settlement agreements with Decapolis, Epic stood firm to ensure Decapolis was no longer a threat to Epic’s customers or the health care industry.
In finding the CHRISTUS Health case exceptional, the Texas court held Decapolis’ “litigation conduct evidences a strategy focused on unjustifiably pursuing Epic’s customers…” and agreed with the Florida court regarding the “clear lack of merit of the claims under § 101, as highlighted by the Federal Circuit in oral argument.”
CHRISTUS Health was represented by Quarles’ Kristin Graham Noel, Matthew Duchemin, Bryce Loken, and Lauren Bolcar, with the assistance of Mark Siegmund and Greg Love of Cherry Johnson Siegmund James, PLLC. The case is Decapolis Systems LLC v. CHRISTUS Health, Case No. 22-cv-00159-JRG-RSP (E.D. Tex.).