A Texas judge has awarded attorney fees to SAP in a declaratory judgment (DJ) action (3:16-cv-02689) against InvestPic LLC, months after the patent-in-suit was invalidated under Alice. In an order issued on September 7, District Judge Ed Kinkeade held that the NPE’s case against SAP was exceptional under Octane, finding that the plaintiff’s litigating position was unreasonable, as it should have known that the asserted patent was directed to unpatentable subject matter, both because the USPTO had previously warned that the claims were likely invalid on that basis and in light of relevant case law. The court also found that InvestPic had litigated its case in an unreasonable manner. The NPE’s owners had reached out to SAP salespeople, using information gathered about alleged infringement while pretending to be potential customers unrelated to InvestPic.