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OpenAI Plaintiff Appeals Denial of Attorneys’ Fees Motion to 11th Circuit

Plaintiff Mark Walters is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the Oct. 25 denial by U.S. District Judge Michael Brown for Northern Georgia in Atlanta of Walters’ Oct. 6 motion for an award of $8,400 in attorney’s…

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fees, according to Walters’ notice of appeal Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-03122). The denial of the motion for attorney’s fees came in the same order where the judge remanded Walters’ defamation complaint against OpenAI to state court for OpenAI’s failure to establish subject-matter jurisdiction by showing diversity of citizenship of its limited liability company members (see 2310260025). OpenAI removed Walters’ complaint to federal court July 14. Walters argued in his motion for attorney’s fees that it’s now “impossible to know for certain” whether OpenAI had “an objectively reasonable basis for seeking removal” in the first place. Walters incurred “significantly increased costs” as a result of the removal, it said. His counsel spent 21 hours on the case after removal, “with such time being necessitated by the removal,” it said. A nationally syndicated talk show host, Walters alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT service defamed him to a reporter (see 2307240031).