A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: DED

ChatGPT comes through again...
ChatGPT comes through again... AI-Generated, displayed with permission

At the FCBA's 2024 Bench and Bar, some of the speakers mentioned that referrals to visiting judges referrals to should be slowing. I've noticed that that seems to be correct — it feels like there have been fewer referrals to visiting judges lately.

Some basic Docket Navigator searches seem to confirm it. I found zero new referrals to visiting judges in the last three months (not counting related-case referrals). That's the longest gap we've had this year, after batches of visiting referrals in January, February, April, July, and on August 1. But Docket Navigator also says that there were even longer gaps last year, including one from January - May and another …

DED

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

I attended the 2024 Delaware Regional Federal Circuit Bench and Bar today. It was a great program with many judges speaking on panels, plus an interview with Judge Dyk of the Federal Circuit and remarks by Senator Chris Coons. Here are some notes about interesting points from the conference, in case you missed it.

New Judges for the District of Delaware

Of particular interest to District of Delaware attorneys (and litigants) is the great news about two potential new judges. Senator Coons relayed the news—which we here at IP/DE had not picked up on—that the U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the JUDGES act …

District Court Seal

We heard from the Court last week that it has selected a new magistrate judge for the District of Delaware: Eleanor G. Tennyson.

The announcement describes her background:

The United States District Court for the District of Delaware is pleased to announce its selection of Eleanor G. Tennyson as a United States Magistrate Judge. Ms. Tennyson fills the position vacated by Judge Jennifer Hall upon Judge Hall’s elevation to the District Court.
Ms. Tennyson is an honors graduate of Grinnell College and received her master’s degree in chemistry from the Clemson University Graduate School of Chemistry. Ms. Tennyson earned her law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law where she was managing editor of the Iowa Law Review. …
DED

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AI-Generated, displayed with permission

Heads up! As the Court described in a public notice last week, the Hunter Biden criminal trial starts on Monday 6/3.

Just reading the notice, you can tell that the Court (unsurprisingly) expects quite a lot of people to be there. It is setting up the 3rd floor jury assembly room as an overflow room, and is not permitting reporters in the courtroom during jury selection:

Members of the public and media may not be present in the courtroom for jury selection but may listen to those proceedings from the overflow room (3rd Floor Jury Assembly Room).
Courtroom seating for . . . the portions of the trial other than jury selection will be on a …

District Court Seal

We mentioned back in October that Judge Hall was confirmed to the District of Delaware. Today, the Court started re-assigning cases from existing judges to Judge Hall. These arrive as a simple one-sentence docket entry:

Case Reassigned to Judge Jennifer L. Hall. Please include the initials of the Judge (JLH) after the case number on all documents filed.

The re-assignments involve cases at multiple stages, including past the close of fact discovery, and cases where Judge Hall was not previously involved as a magistrate judge.

One common question I see is "why did our case get re-assigned"? We can all speculate, but I'm not sure it's safe to read anything into a re-assignment like this beyond "our case was re-assigned …

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

The District of Delaware is looking for its next magistrate judge!

The formal requirements to become a magistrate judge, as set forth in the announcement, are actually fairly easy to meet:

To be qualified for appointment an applicant must
(1) Be, and have been for at least five years, a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Territory of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of the United States, and have been engaged in the active practice …

AI
Markus Winkler, Unsplash

An order on Friday reminded me of a local counsel issue that comes up from time to time here in D. Del.

Whenever a party files a motion or a brief, the docket on PACER automatically includes a due date, like so:

312 OPENING BRIEF in Support re 311 MOTION to Amend Judgment, filed by ViaTech Technologies Inc..Answering Brief/Response due date per Local Rules is 11/8/2023. (Mayo, Andrew) . . . (Entered: 10/25/2023)

ViaTech Technologies, Inc. v. Adobe Inc., C.A. No. 20-358-RGA-JLH (D. Del. Oct. 25, 2023).

The docket text is not perfectly clear, but that due date is automatically generated based on a set of rules in PACER (that are …

I was not expecting book recommendations—fiction and non-fiction—from the conference!
I was not expecting book recommendations—fiction and non-fiction—from the conference! saracohenn, Unsplash

Following up on our post last week, here is part 2 of our notes about the District of Delaware Bench and Bar. As we mentioned, these are all without attribution under the Chatham House Rule, and we won't be discussing any specific panels:

Magistrate Judge Tips

  • For discovery disputes, judges want to see what the moving party wants, why, and what law or regulation justifies the request.
  • The party opposing a discovery dispute should focus on the real reason for opposing the request
  • The court appreciates honesty and the parties having some level of restraint in arguing discovery disputes
  • Timing of discovery dispute motions is important. …
DED

Why did I try to take notes by hand?!
Why did I try to take notes by hand?! Luke Southern, Unsplash

The 2023 District of Delaware Bench and Bar wrapped up today. It was really great to see everyone in person again. It's hard to believe it, but the last D. Del. Bench and Bar conference was back in May 2018 - over five years ago!

Everyone seems to agree the conference was a huge success. Thank you to the organizers and the Court, who put in a ton of work to make it happen!

Notes

The conference is conducted under the Chatham House Rule—which, honestly, we had forgotten. That means we "are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation …

DED

District Court Seal

I imagine all of our Delaware readers already know this, but the District of Delaware Bench and Bar conference starts tomorrow and runs through Friday.

The District of Delaware bench-and-bar is an excellent event that runs all day tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday, including an evening event on Thursday. It is the product of a huge amount of work put in by the District of Delaware FBA as well as many other attorneys, judges, and staff member, for which we are all thankful!

As we mentioned earlier this year, the Court has already issued an order modifying case deadlines that would otherwise fall tomorrow and Friday:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that all members of the court - District, Magistrate, and …