A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for date: 2020
MTD

Magistrate Judge Burke issued an R&R today addressing an interesting procedural situation.

In Shure Incorporated et al v. Clearone, Inc., C.A. No. 19-1343-CJB (D. Del. June 1, 2020), the plaintiff moved to amend to add an additional patent, just before the patent issued.

In response, and before oral argument on the motion, the defendant filed a DJ action on the new patent in another jurisdiction, trying to keep that part of the case out of the District of Delaware.

After the Court granted the motion to amend, plaintiff then moved to dismiss under the first-filed rule.

Judge Burke rejected plaintiff's approach, holding both that the amended complaint related back, so it was filed first, and that …

COVID-19
CDC / Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS

Right now, the District of Delaware has continued all jury trials and jury selection scheduled before June 30, 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while the Court's standing order does not require judges to hold pending oral arguments telephonically or by video, that has been the practice thus far. Shaw Keller has a great summary page.

Delaware State Courts Reopening

The Delaware state courthouses and their administrative offices have been closed to the public since March 23. Their COVID-19 page is here....

Judge Andrews today rejected a portion of a defendant's objections to an R&R because the defendant set forth its objections in "a footnote, which purport[ed] to include about eight pages of the earlier briefing." Sapp et al v. Industrial Action Services, LLC et al, No. 19-912-RGA, at 10 (D. Del. May 29, 2020) (emphasis added).

He held—perhaps not surprisingly—that this "is an insufficient objection." Id.

That said, he did sustain the same defendant's objections to other portions of Magistrate Judge Burke's R&R, although he called the underlying legal issue a "close call." Id. at 8.

Today, Chief Judge Stark scheduled an in-person hearing for July 1, 2020—one day after the expiration of the current standing order re: COVID-19.

The Court's current standing order does not preclude in-person hearings, but the Court has been holding hearings telephonically or by video conference during the pandemic. This order shows that the Court--or at least Chief Judge Stark—is hoping to restart some in-person hearings relatively soon.

The full text of the Court's oral order is:

ORAL ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Court will hear argument on the post-trial motions on July 1, 2020 beginning at 1:00 p.m. Each side will be allocated up to one (1) hour to present its argument. This hearing is tentatively scheduled to …

A simple topic for my first post—why start a blog?

Aren't there already multiple Delaware IP law blogs?

Yes, there are already other blogs that cover IP litigation in the District of Delaware, such as YCST's Delaware IP Law Blog—which I used to write for—and Gregory B. Williams' Delaware Intellectual Property Litigation blog.

They've done a great job over the past 10+ years of covering hundreds and hundreds of decisions issued by the judges here. They often post detailed summaries of judicial decisions, and they have covered many seismic changes in the district.

Haven't you heard of a thing called Law360?

Yes, and I've written for it. It's great. There is also Docket Navigator, which is an …