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Filing multiple patent lawsuits against different companies can sometimes feel like planting several bets on the same losing horse — and that's essentially what unfolded for Alexsam Inc. this week. A Texas federal magistrate judge awarded Cigna Corp. nearly $1.8 million in legal fees after the insurance company was cleared of infringing a card payment patent, arriving just days after the same judge ruled that a shopping mall owner and a gift card company were also entitled to fee awards stemming from the very same legal battle.

The Ruling That Sealed Cigna's Victory

U.S. Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne granted Cigna's bid for $1,757,577 in fees on Friday, in a suit originally brought by Alexsam. Back in 2022, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III had adopted a report finding that Cigna didn't infringe the patent at the center of the dispute. Judge Payne didn't mince words about the case's unusual nature, stating it "stands out among all the cases the court has been assigned in more than 30 years" — a striking characterization from a judge with decades of cases to compare it against.

An "Extraordinary" Request, Rejected

According to Judge Payne, Alexsam had attempted what he called a "simply extraordinary" maneuver — asking the court to disregard binding precedent established by the Federal Circuit. That precedent traced back more than a decade, to a Federal Circuit decision that overturned part of a multimillion-dollar verdict against a point-of-sale system provider in the case Alexsam v. IDT, which centered on U.S. Patent No. 6,000,608 — the very same patent Alexsam was now asserting against Cigna.

A Pattern of Litigation Across Multiple Defendants

Cigna was originally sued in 2020, after Alexsam had already filed separate suits against shopping mall company Simon Property Group and gift card business Blackhawk Network in Texas federal court — meaning Cigna's case was just one thread in a much larger litigation tapestry Alexsam had woven around this single patent.

A Costly Two-Day Stretch for Alexsam

Just two days before ruling against Alexsam in the Cigna matter, Judge Payne had already granted Simon Property Group's motion for attorney fees and costs, along with Blackhawk Network's separate motion for fees and sanctions. In both of those earlier rulings, the court had similarly found that neither company had infringed the patent in question — meaning Alexsam went from potential three-way payday to a three-way fee liability in the span of less than a week.

Silence From Both Sides

Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday, leaving the ruling to speak for itself in the immediate aftermath.

The Patent and the Legal Teams Involved

The patent at the center of this entire saga remains U.S. Patent No. 6,000,608. Alexsam is represented by Jacqueline K. Burt, Timothy C. Davis and W. Lee Gresham III of Heninger Garrison Davis LLC, Steven W. Ritcheson of Insight PLC, and William Cornelius of Wilson Robertson & Cornelius PC.

Cigna, meanwhile, is represented by Neil J. McNabnay, Ricardo J. Bonilla, Bret T. Winterle, David B. Conrad, Lance E. Wyatt and Sarika N. Patel of Fish & Richardson PC.

For Alexsam, what began as a coordinated legal offensive against three separate companies has instead ended in a costly trifecta of defeats — a reminder that in patent litigation, spreading a claim across multiple defendants doesn't multiply the odds of success, it simply multiplies the exposure when a court decides the underlying claim doesn't hold up at all.