The invalidated patents related to "heat map patents," which relate to displaying heat maps of web browsing data. These include U.S. Patent Nos. 10,063,645 and 10,079,737.
The third patent, which was not invalidated, related to "creating multiple versions of a website to determine users' preferences." Interestingly, the Court held …
As we previously mentioned, the Court has suspended all non-emergency jury trials until April 5, 2021, and has stated that, at least initially, it will permit only one jury trial to proceed at a time.
The Court tried repeatedly to re-start jury trials in November and continuing through early February—and got so far as jury selection—but ultimately all of the cases scheduled for trial either resolved or were delayed, mostly due to coronavirus concerns among the parties. At this point, the Court has recognized that, once jury trials restart, the trial calendar is looking extremely congested.
The Court Has Not Canceled All April Jury Trials (Yet)
When should a patentee have to disclose the date of invention? The defendant would prefer a date before invalidity contentions so they don't waste time vetting reams of recent prior art only to have the plaintiff produce the inventor's 4th grade journal showing conception in the early 1930's. The plaintiff, on the other hand, would prefer not to go digging through lab notebooks to try and prove a conception date, only to find that all of the relevant prior art was carved on stone tablets by cabal of renaissance alchemists long before the inventor was born.
No Answer In The Rules
Neither the Delaware Default Standard for Discovery, nor the form scheduling orders of any of our judges address when …
Chief Judge Stark on Friday scheduled the first post-COVID-19 patent jury trial that I've seen, in Guardant Health, Inc. v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., C.A. No. 17-1616-LPS-CJB, D.I. 487 (D. Del. Oct. 16, 2020). (The potential Judge Noreika trial I mentioned recently is not going forward).
The Court had offered the November 30 date late last month. The defendant objected to it due to a conflict. The defendant also argued that the jury pool will not be representative, lacking older jurors, and that holding a trial would go against CDC guidance.
The Court was not persuaded. It did, however, set the following restrictions:
No live witnesses: The Court accepted a proposal that since not all witnesses can …
Chief Judge Stark today denied an emergency request by defendants to delay a remote bench trial scheduled to start next week.
The Court had previously solicited the parties' preferences on how to handle trial and, before the pretrial conference, ordered that the trial would be fully remote. At the pretrial conference, neither party objected to that ruling.
Last week, however, Defendants sought emergency relief to delay the trial in order to convert it to a "partially remote" trial, submitting a declaration from their client that they had not authorized their now-former in-house counsel to agree to a fully virtual trial.
They cited due process rights and the importance of in-person testimony …
A recent decision from Judge Stark highlights an often-overlooked aspect of motions to compel: explaining why the documents are relevant in the first place.
I know you, dear loyal readers, depend upon us for your very sustenance. A week with IP/DE is like a week without the sun, a summer without ice cream, a concert with no encore. The life of a patent lawyer is gray enough without the small indignity of a blog break.
But we have begun our halting return! Andrew reminded me that we were back today, and following some initial cursing that cannot be repeated on even the most bawdy of blogs, we have again taken up the mantle of infotainment resource.
Rejoice!
AI-Generated, displayed with permission
Today's case is a fun one. Plaintiff in BE Tech. LLC v. Google LLC, C.A. No. 20-622-GBW, D.I. 348 (D. Del. Apr. 16, 2026) had a rocky road to summary judgment. At the motion to dismiss stage --long long ago now -- they'd faced a series of 101 challenges to the patent in suit. In these proceedings, Judge Stark had twice found that one of the claims in the patent in suit was representative and that it failed Alice at step one for being directed to an abstract idea.
The motions were ultimately denied however with the court finding that fact issues precluded a decision on step 2. Defendants ultimately filed IPR's on all of the patents and the case was stayed for some time. The PTAB then invalidated all but one claim of one of the patents -- not the one that the court had previously found representative.
The case resumed and the parties cross-moved for summary judgment on 101 grounds. The plaintiff argued that the court's prior holding that the now-invalid claim was representative, and that all the claims failed step 1, was no longer binding now that the claim was out of the case.
Judge Williams issued an interesting opinion yesterday on a motion to strike.
This is becoming my standard pitcture when I don't have anything more clever. Let me know if you would like me to replace it with a series of cartoons of Andrew and I shruggingBilly, Unsplash
The issue in Cisco Systems, Inc. et al v. Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd., C.A. No. 21-1365-GBW (D. Del. Jan. 15, 2025) was the form of the briefing. The case had previously been assigned to Judge Stark, before passing to the vacant judgeship, then Judge Burke. The parties' scheduling order thus followed judge Burke's form order which contained a specific letter briefing procedure for motions to strike with 3-page opening, a 5 page answering and 2-page reply briefs. When the case was reassigned to Judge Williams, the parties kept the old scheduling order.
The parties ultimately raised the motion to strike through Judge Williams' dispute procedures. He issued an oral order that allowed for only 3-page opening and answering briefs without reference to the procedures in the scheduling order:
Having reviewed the parties' joint letter requesting a discovery teleconference (D.I. 146), IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, by no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, any party seeking relief shall file with the Court a letter, not to exceed three (3) pages, outlining the issues in dispute, its position on those issues, and supporting authority for its position(s). By no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 12, 2024, any party opposing the request for relief may file a letter, not to exceed three (3) pages, outlining that party's reasons for its opposition and supporting authority.
The movant (Plaintiff) filed a 3 page letter (the correct procedure under either the scheduling order the later oral order). The defendant, however, filed a 5-page answering brief -- allowed under the scheduling order but exceeding the limit set in the oral order.
Judge Williams thus declined to consider any of the argument after page 3 of the brief:
While the Operative Scheduling Order sets default page limits for motions to strike, the parties were both instructed to submit letter briefs not exceeding three pages. Cisco complied with that instruction. Ramot did not. Accordingly, the Court will exercise its discretion and give no weight to the text beyond page three of Ramot's brief.
One of the hallmarks of the Hatch-Waxman Act is the "offer of confidential access," wherein the generic manufacturer must offer the NDA holder, you guessed it, confidential access to the ANDA before the deadline to file suit.
AI-Generated, displayed with permission
One of the lesser explored implications of the OCA is the effect of a patentee declining the offer and bringing suit without reviewing the actual ANDA. In particular, how does that decision effect the attorney's fees inquiry if the NDA holder is ultimately unsuccessful at trial?
This was the question Judge Goldberg addressed on Friday in Silvergate Pharms., Inc. v. Bionpharma Inc., C.A. No. 18-1962-MSG (D. Del. Oct. 4, 2024) (Mem. Op.). Bionpharma had prevailed …
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