Aug 22 (Reuters) - A Houston-based patent lawyer who has

filed more than 100 lawsuits this year alone is on the hook for

Volkswagen's legal bills after a federal judge dismissed his

client's lawsuit against the German automaker, marking the

latest in a series of sanctions against him or his clients for

litigation misconduct.

William Ramey and his client VDPP were ordered last week to

pay $207,000 in legal fees for their dismissed case claiming

Volkswagen's 2020 backup camera system infringed a VDPP patent.

VDPP's case was "frivolous" and riddled with errors, the

federal judge in Houston found last week.

"VDPP's misconduct infected the entire litigation," U.S.

District Judge Lee Rosenthal wrote in an Aug. 13 ruling, calling

the lawsuit "a case that never should have been filed."

Rosenthal said Ramey himself was jointly liable, after

noting in an earlier decision that "this is not the first time"

a judge found the lawyer had brought a case warranting

sanctions.

Ramey, whose law firm Ramey LLP has filed at least 25

lawsuits on VDPP's behalf this year, said in an email that he

and his client "respect all court orders. We appeal those orders

we think are incorrect, as we have done in this case."

A Volkswagen spokesperson did not immediately respond to a

request for comment.

Volkswagen was represented in the case by lawyers from

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, an intellectual

property-focused law firm, and Houston-based Trent & Taylor.

Lawyers for those firms did not immediately respond to a request

for comment.

Rosenthal said Volkswagen's lawyers worked 256 hours on the

case, charging between $600 and $979 an hour.

Federal judges in Texas and other states have issued fee

sanctions in cases brought by Ramey at least seven times in four

years, adding up to at least $810,000, according to a review by

Reuters.

More than $250,000 of those fees are owed in cases Ramey

brought against Google.

A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Ramey's client,

EscapeX IP, to pay more than $191,000 to Google in August 2023

after finding it filed a frivolous lawsuit against the tech

giant's YouTube unit in hopes of extracting a small settlement.

The same judge later hit EscapeX with more sanctions in

February, ordering the company to pay more than $65,000 in legal

fees to Google. EscapeX has appealed the fee awards in the

Google case and others.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) has also asked for sanctions against Ramey and his

law firm after his former client unsuccessfully sued the company

in Waco, Texas, federal court for violating its patents with its

Azure and Security systems.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) accused the Ramey firm of seeking "quick,

nuisance-value settlements" on behalf of clients that are just

shell companies with little to no assets. Any settlement money

the firm receives is distributed to the firm and its litigation

funders, Microsoft ( MSFT ) said.

Ramey has filed a dueling sanctions request against the

company, as well as its lawyer from White & Case and the

in-house counsel of his former client in the Microsoft ( MSFT ) case, CTD

Networks. Ramey said Microsoft ( MSFT ) relied on "patently false"

information in its sanctions bid, and he defended his conduct in

the CTD litigation and other patent cases.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez has yet to rule on the

competing motions. A Microsoft ( MSFT ) spokesperson declined to comment.

White & Case partner Jonathan Lamberson did not immediately

respond to a request for comment.

(Legal Fee Tracker is a weekly feature exploring attorney

compensation awards and disputes in class actions, bankruptcies

and other matters. Please send tips or suggestions to

[email protected].)

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