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16th Annual Eastern District of Texas Bench Bar Conference October 24-26, 2012 – Plano, Texas. Key ED Texas Patent Decisions & Federal Circuit Trends. Hon. Roy S. Payne, Marshall, Texas Jennifer Ainsworth, Tyler, Texas Peter Corcoran, Houston, Texas Michael C. Smith, Marshall, Texas.
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16th Annual Eastern District of Texas Bench Bar Conference October 24-26, 2012 – Plano, Texas Key ED Texas Patent Decisions & Federal Circuit Trends Hon. Roy S. Payne, Marshall, Texas Jennifer Ainsworth, Tyler, Texas Peter Corcoran, Houston, Texas Michael C. Smith, Marshall, Texas The 1901 Harrison County Courthouse (restored 2009) Marshall, Texas J. Riely Gordon, architect
Review of… • Leading ED Texas patent decisions from 2011-2012. • Trends in Federal Circuit.
Eastern District of Texas cases • Extensions (to answer/in general) • Severance / consolidation • Amending contentions • Discovery • Lead defendant • Cost shifting • Settlement negotiations • Limiting claims/prior art references • Motions to stay due to pending cases. • Court costs • Willful infringement
Extensions (to answer) • Tallgrass Prairie Management, LLC v. Microsoft, et al., 2:11cv411 (7/27/12) (Schneider, J.) • Phoenix v. GEICO, 2:12cv214 (7/19/12) (Payne, J.)
Extensions (in general) • Docket control / discovery orders • Protective orders • Notice of mediator • E-discovery order
Severance/consolidation • Norman IP Holdings, LLC v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc., 6:11cv495 (8/10/12) (Davis, J.) • Rotatable Technologies v. Apple, et al., 2:12cv292 (8/17/12) (Gilstrap, J.) • Swipe Innovations v. Elavon, 9:12cv40 (8/14/12) (Clark, J.) • Oasis v. Carbonite, et al, 4:10cv435 (8/15/12) (Mazzant, J.) • TQP v. Aflac, 2:11cv397 (8/16/12) (Craven, J.)
Amending Contentions • EON Corp. v. T-Mobile USA, et al, 6:10cv379 (1/24/12) (Love, J.) • Lake Cherokee v. Bass Computers, et al., 2:10cv216 (7/2/12) (Gilstrap, J.)
Discovery - "lead defendant" • Geotag v. Circle K Stores, Inc., et al., 2:11cv405 (8/14/12) (Schneider, J.)
Discovery – cost shifting • MicroUnity v. Apple, et al., 2:10cv91 (6/19/12) (Payne, J.) (citing FRCP 37(a)(5)(A))
Discovery - settlement negotiations • Hill v. Abt, 2:09cv313 (E.D. Tex. 4/4/12) (Gilstrap, J.) (citing Clear with Computers LLC v. Bergdorf Goodman, Inc., 753 F. Supp. 2d 662 (E.D. Tex. 2010) (Davis, C.J.))
Limiting number of terms/claims/prior art references • Unified Messaging Solutions v. Facebook/Google, 6:11cv120/464 7/12/12) (Davis, C.J.) (reduce claims to 20; reduce invalidity contentions to 4 “distinct bases of invalidity” for each claim) • Eon v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., 6:10-cv-00379, (9/10/12) (Love, J.) (reduce to 4 “distinct bases for invalidity, including obviousness combinations”) • Wi-LAN, Inc. v. Acer, Inc., 2:07-cv-00473, (7/29/12) (Ward, J.) (limiting to 12 “anticipation or obvious charts total” for all claims) • Mosaid v. Freescale, 6:11cv173 (8/28/12) (Davis, J.) (4 total references per claim) • Hearing Components, Inc. v. Shure, Inc., 2008 WL 2485426 at *1 (6/13/08) (Clark, J.) (limit to ten terms and three claims) • DDR v. Digital River, 2:06cv42 (Gilstrap, J.) (request for 4 prior art references limit denied). • MicroUnity v. Apple, 2:10cv091 (6/7/12) (Payne, J.) (motion to limit claims denied).
Motion to Stay Due to Prior Pending Litigation • Levine v. Casio America, Inc. et al., 2:11cv56 (5/2/12) (Schneider, J.)
Court Costs • Eolas Technologies v. Adobe Systems, et al., 6:09cv446 (E.D. Tex. 7/19/12) (Davis, C.J.)
Willful infringement • SSL Services v. Citrix, 2:08cv158 (9/17/12) (Gilstrap, J.)
Federal Circuit Trends • Bard • In re EMC • Laserdynamics • Retractable Technologies
The End Michael C. Smith Siebman, Burg, Phillips & Smith, LLP Marshall, Texas michaelsmith@siebman.com www.EDTexweblog.com