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Judge Stark Reassignments Start

Andrew E. Russell, March 11, 2022
Congestion Vacant Judgship

Following the Court's announcement of a transition plan last week, the Court issued an implementing standing order on Wednesday, and today we saw a wave of reassignments from Judge Stark cases—all to Judge Andrews.

A number of cases were re-assigned, including:

  • American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC, C.A. No. 15-1168 (D. Del.)
  • Future Link Systems, LLC v. Amlogic Holdings, Ltd., C.A. No. 21-634 (D. Del.)
  • Finjan LLC v. Trustwave Holdings, Inc., C.A. No. 20-371 (D. Del.)
  • Celanese International Corporation v. Anhui Jinhe Industrial Co., Ltd., C.A. No. 20-1775 (D. Del.)

In each case, Judge Andrews ordered the parties to produce a status report within …

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Judge Stark to Be Nominated for the Federal Circuit

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 3, 2021
Congestion Judges

Wilmington, <a href='#' class='abbreviation' data-bs-toggle='tooltip' data-placement='top' title='Delaware'>DE</a>
Wilmington, DE Andrew Russell, CC BY 2.0

Big news! The White House announced today that Judge Leonard P. Stark of the District of Delaware is set to be nominated to the Federal Circuit.

Assuming he is confirmed, Judge Stark will actually be the second judge to be elevated to an appellate court from the District of Delaware in recent memory, following The Honorable Kent A. Jordan's elevation to the Third Circuit in 2006.

Congratulations to Judge Stark!

Another Judicial Vacancy? No problem.

Despite its enormous patent case load, the District of Delaware remains a small court, with just four district court judges (although the Judicial Conference …

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Judge Stark Begins Assigning Cases to Visiting Judges

Nathan R. Hoeschen, Jan. 20, 2022
Visiting Judges Congestion

Goodbye Judge!
Goodbye Judge! Japanese cat figurines, Alain Pham, Unsplash

Following Judge Stark's nomination to the Federal Circuit and subsequent smooth appearance before the Judiciary Committee, we've all begun to wonder when he would begin unloading his pending cases.

Well wonder no more!

On Tuesday, Judge Stark issued the following oral order in 360Heros, Inc. v. GoPro, Inc., C.A. No. 17-1302-LPS, D.I. 260 (D. Del. Jan. 18, 2022):

Having reviewed the parties' letter relating to the jury trial currently scheduled to begin on March 7 . . . IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the trial is CONTINUED to a date to be determined. The parties are advised that in advance of trial, likely sometime in February, …
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Judge Stark's 50-Hour ANDA Trial

Jeff Castellano, Jan. 12, 2021
ANDA Trial Scheduling

Trials in ANDA cases (also known as Hatch-Waxman cases) are usually very efficient matters. There is no jury, and the judges, lawyers, and witnesses that regularly try and participate in ANDA cases are well-practiced at maximizing the amount of evidence presented in each trial day (even where the issues are quite complicated and the parties numerous). So ANDA trials are often short, sometimes just a few days from start to finish.

Occasionally, however, even ANDA cases are too complicated to fit into a one-week-or-less trial. For example, Judge Stark recently stated that he may allocate up to 25 hours per side in an ANDA case set to go to trial later this week.

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Another Judge Stark Reassignment Pending His Departure

Andrew E. Russell, Feb. 24, 2022
Congestion Judicial Vacancies

Fork in the Road
Jens Lelie, Unsplash

Ever since Judge Stark was confirmed to the Federal Circuit, one of the most common questions I've received is: what will happen to his current cases, and when will we know?

There have already been some reassignments to visiting judges, but few clear indications of what may happen in the bulk of Judge Stark's current cases. We got some more hints yesterday in this oral order from Judge Stark:

ORAL ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this case will be reassigned to another judge and the pretrial conference (currently scheduled for March 24) and jury trial (currently scheduled for April 6) will be rescheduled by that judge. Accordingly, the current pretrial conference and trial dates are …
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Judge Stark Denies PI Motion on the Papers

David M. Fry, Sept. 24, 2021
Preliminary Injunction Oral Argument

Oral argument is never guaranteed in D. Del. This means you need to be careful in paring back your briefs—anything that ends up on the cutting room floor might never see the light of day.

Case in point: On Friday, Judge Stark issued an order denying a motion for a preliminary injunction in a competitor case (seeking to require the defendant to withdraw several pending IPR petitions). Both sides requested oral argument, and the plaintiff requested an expedited hearing.

Instead of holding argument, Judge Stark summarily denied the motion on the papers. In a single paragraph, he held that the plaintiff "failed to persuade the Court" on any of the preliminary injunction factors, and noted that a full …

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Judge Stark Awards Attorneys' Fees in Two Cases

Jeff Castellano, Feb. 4, 2022
Fees

This week, Judge Stark granted defendants' motions for attorneys' fees in two separate cases. Although the cases are unrelated, there is nonetheless a fair amount of overlap in what the Court found persuasive in granting fees.

Money
Pepi Stojanovski, Unsplash

The defendants in both cases - Wi-Lan v. Sharp Electronics Corp., C.A. No. 15-379-LPS and Belcher Pharmaceuticals, LLC v. Hospira, Inc., C.A. No. 17-775-LPS - moved for fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285, arguing that the cases were exceptional.

So what helps convince a judge that a case is exceptional, and what are some other through-lines in these rulings?

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Judge Stark Gives Insight Into 2020 Trial Schedule

Jeff Castellano, June 30, 2020
LPS COVID-19

In two recent oral orders, Chief Judge Stark provided some insight into how he is scheduling bench trials in 2020. In both cases, Judge Stark indicated a willingness to hold "remote" bench trials. While the question of whether and how jury trials will proceed in 2020 is still very much open, it appears that Judge Stark is continuing to move forward with bench trials, and investigating practical solutions to problems posed by Covid-related restrictions.

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Judge Stark Holds Another Remote 101 Day

David M. Fry, July 2, 2021
12(b)(6) 101 Day

We've written several times about Judge Stark's practice of holding "101 days." For the uninitiated, these are day-long hearings in which the court hears argument on multiple 101 motions from unrelated cases in a single, combined hearing. He has continued this practice throughout the pandemic, holding telephonic 101 days roughly once a quarter since July 2020.

He held another one last Friday, and he issued his written rulings earlier today. This time, he addressed three 12(b)(6) motions covering a total of four patents.

F45 Training Pty Ltd. v. Body Fit Training USA Inc. (C.A. No. 20-1194-LPS)

The claims were "directed to the abstract idea of storing, sending, and retrieving information over a network." Judge Stark found that this …

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A Look Back at Judge Stark's First Remote Trial

Nathan R. Hoeschen, April 9, 2021
Remote Trials Expert Witness

Just as Delaware gears up to resume jury trials, Judge Stark has released his post-trial opinion for his first fully remote trial of the pandemic in AO Smith Corp. v. Bradford White Corp., C.A. No. 18-412-LPS.

The opinion -- long in the manner of all post-trial opinions -- is worth a read in full. But for my money the main takeaway is how large a roll witness credibility appeared to play in the final outcome, as the difficulty in assessing these things has long been an argument against fully remote trials.

As often happens, the infringement case amounted to a battle of the experts, and there does not appear to be any dispute about who won. Somewhat unusually, the …

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