A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: 101 Day

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Burn for something, that enlight and warm others. Passion., Andy Kogl, Unsplash

The 101 day has been the highlight of the Delaware patent law hearing calendar for many years now. It's an all-day no-holds-barred marathon where questions can come to any party at any time. And the best part is, you can look forward to a decision at the end of the day. It is our Super Bowl and our debutante ball all in one, where Delaware's brightest stars go to see, and be seen.

Naturally, I always attend.

I had been a bit worried that the practice would not survive Judge Stark's departure. Although other Judges have adopted the practice to some extent, Judge Stark (the progenitor of the practice) had always been the most reliable host for the event.

Judge Burke Revives the Practice with his own Flair

But my fears were laid to rest last week when ...

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 …

Conservatively, 134,000,000% of 12(b)(6) motions request dismissal with prejudice. After all, no one wants to win a motion only to start a similar, but slightly harder round of briefing, when the plaintiff inevitably does file a modestly improved complaint. However, it tends to be a pretty big life to actually secure a dismissal with prejudice when the plaintiff has not already tried and fail to fix the complaint's problems.

It's occurred to me in the past that it would be nice to have a middle ground between a dismissal with and without prejudice. Something for claims that haven't already proven themselves beyond repair with serial amendments, but that are marginal enough that they are unlikely to be cured.

Judge Stark …

Artist's Rendering of First 101 Day Hearing
Artist's Rendering of First 101 Day Hearing Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, from "Illustrated London News", William Luson Thomas

It was not so long ago that plaintiffs might enter a § 101 day hearing before Judge Stark with hats in hands, ready to plead for any small mercy. To some, having one's case set for a § 101 day hearing was to know the day and the hour. But that was back in the heady days of early 2019. With two new § 101-day rulings issued by Judge Stark just this week, plaintiffs need no longer dread these (approximately) quarterly events.

Claims of All Three Patents Invalidated At Inaugural § 101 Day

At the inaugural hearing in …