A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: Pennypack

Court Strikes Seven New Prior Art Exhibits Offered for the First Time After Post-Trial Briefing (!?!)

Andrew E. Russell, Aug. 17, 2022
Post-Trial Briefing Post-trial Motions

Man rushing to get important facts into the record prior to appeal
Man rushing to get important facts into the record prior to appeal Man Holding Handbag, Andy Beales, Unsplash

Wow, it's hard to imagine how a party could have a fact disclosure that is later than this, other than maybe trying to offer new facts for the first time on appeal.

In Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals L.P. v. Powder Springs Logistics, LLC, C.A. No. 17-1390-RGA (D. Del.), the parties had a jury trial in December 2021. The jury found infringement, no invalidity, willfulness, and damages of over $12 million against two defendants. The Court later entered a (mostly undisputed) permanent injunction.

The Court addressed the defendant's § 101 claims by motion and briefing after the …

View

Court Grants Daubert Motion Based on One-Sentence Argument in Footnote

Andrew E. Russell, Aug. 10, 2022
Pennypack Daubert

Football
Dave Adamson, Unsplash

It happens all of the time: You've got arguments A, B, and C that you want to fit in your brief, but you don't have the space to address them all.

What to do? Cut the weaker arguments?

For most attorneys, the answer is: of course not! They move the lesser argument to a footnote in a hail-mary attempt to win if the better arguments fail.

Does it work? Not usually. Here in D. Del., judges have suggested that parties waive arguments when they present them only in cursory footnotes, and Judge Noreika recently noted that "courts traditionally do not consider arguments presented entirely in footnotes." Nw. Univ. v. Universal Robots A/S, C.A. No. …

View

Penny-Pack-it-in

Nathan R. Hoeschen, June 30, 2022
Pennypack

Forgive the Puppy
Forgive the Puppy Taylor Kopel, Unsplash

Judge Burke had an interesting opinion on Tuesday striking final contentions served after the deadline in the scheduling order.

It's become increasingly common in the district for late-served final contentions to be analyzed under the less forgiving good cause standard of Rule 16 without reference to the Pennypack Factors. Even so, it was a bit surprising to see the Court strike contentions which were filed just a month after the deadline, which the Court addressed directly in the Order:

This result might seem harsh in light of the facts here, since Plaintiff submitted the belated contentions at issue only about a month after the filing deadline called for by the Scheduling Order. …
View

Special Master Williams, Nominated to Replace Judge Stark, Strikes Late Infringement Contentions

Andrew E. Russell, May 25, 2022
DOE Motion to Strike

Special Master Williams quoted Judge Andrews' recent holding that a new <a href='#' class='abbreviation' data-bs-toggle='tooltip' data-placement='top' title='Doctrine of Equivalents'>DOE</a> argument
Special Master Williams quoted Judge Andrews' recent holding that a new DOE argument "creates a new balgame." Caitlin Conner, Unsplash

Yesterday, Special Master Gregory B. Williams, who has been nominated to replace Judge Stark, issued an order granting a motion to strike late Doctrine of Equivalents contentions.

In TQ Delta, LLC v. Comcast Cable Communications LLC, C.A. No. 15-611-RGA, D.I. 455 (D. Del. May 24, 2022), plaintiff served a new DOE theory over two months after final contentions were due, after it found—following non-infringement contentions received from the defendants—that its original DOE theory would fail.

Special Master Williams rejected …

View

System Prior Art Strikes Again

Andrew E. Russell, May 24, 2022
Expert Discovery Pennypack

Copyright Symbol
Andrew E. Russell

We've talked before about how asserting invalidity based on system prior art (as opposed to written publications, for example) can be tricky, because accused infringers can face all kinds of sometimes-unexpected difficulties with proving up the prior art.

Parties often get into sticky evidentiary questions about exactly what kinds of evidence are sufficient to show that the relevant prior art was on sale before the priority date, and how the prior art functioned—and whether that all of that evidence has authenticity or hearsay issues.

On Friday, Magistrate Judge Burke issued a long oral report and recommendation to grant summary judgment of no invalidity based on a system prior art reference. In the case, the defendants relied …

View

Court Denies Motion to Strike Bare-Bones Infringement Contentions, Suggests Motion to Strike Later Expert Reports Instead

Andrew E. Russell, April 21, 2022
Infringement Pennypack

Bare Bones
Mathew Schwartz, Unsplash

Sufficiency of each parties' contentions is one of the most common issues in patent cases in Delaware. Both sides tend to want to know exactly what the other side plans to argue—ideally before claim construction. That way the parties can construe the terms that actually matter, and have straightforward dispute about whether the accused product and the prior art meets the claim elements.

Beyond that, both parties typically want the other side to be held to what they disclosed in their contentions. The rules generally prohibit a party from disclosing one thing and then arguing something else later, for no reason (although Third Circuit law can be remarkably soft on this point).

Having a reasonable idea …

View

Court Excludes "Cobbled Together" Damages Theory Days Before Trial; Plaintiff Wins Infringement But No Damages Award

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 18, 2021
Trial Expert Reports

Ouch.
Ouch. Emil Kalibradov, Unsplash

Back in September we wrote about how Judge Andrews rejected an expert who relied on a 50/50 starting point to show damages in a patent case. We noted at the time that the defendant had moved to strike any follow-up theory by the plaintiff, and it wasn't clear that the Court had ruled on it before trial began.

Now we know what actually happened. Yesterday, the Court released its opinion on the motion to strike. In its opinion, the Court explained that after the plaintiff lost its damages expert, the plaintiff tried to "cobble together" a damages theory from various facts on the Friday before trial. The Court struck that new theory:

[Plaintiff] NexStep …
View

What Can a Patentee Do When the Court Excludes Its Damages Expert? Maybe Force the Other Side’s Damages Expert to Testify for the Patentee.

Andrew E. Russell, Oct. 29, 2021
Damages Experts

With this case, the hits just keep coming...
With this case, the hits just keep coming... Mitya Ivanov, Unsplash

What do you do when your expert's damages opinion gets excluded, the Court rules you cannot proceed based solely on the factual evidence, and you bear the burden of proof?

According to an opinion from Judge Andrews yesterday, one option is to call the other side’s expert—even if the other side otherwise refuses to put her on the stand.

This Case Again?

We've actually talked about this case, Shure Inc. v. ClearOne, Inc., C.A. No. 19-1343-RGA-CJB (D. Del.), quite a bit at this point, including defendant's efforts to use DJ jurisdiction to keep part of the case out of Delaware, and plaintiff's effort …

View

Judge Andrews Strikes Last-Minute Damages Report

David M. Fry, Oct. 27, 2021
Damages Pennypack

When it comes to supplemental expert reports, how late is too late?

In a case that's set for trial next month, Judge Andrews recently addressed the parties' objections to a number of orders and R&Rs issued by Magistrate Judge Burke. In one of those orders, Judge Burke granted a motion to exclude some of the plaintiffs' damages calculations as erroneous and unreliable.

The plaintiffs objected, and in the meantime, they served a supplemental damages report attempting "[t]o correct the flawed analysis" excluded by Judge Burke.

Judge Andrews not only overruled the objections, but also found that the supplemental report was submitted too late:

The report was filed less than three weeks before trial. . . . This is …
View

Pennypack Strikes Back: The Return of Curative Discovery

David M. Fry, Aug. 23, 2021
Motion to Strike Pennypack

Cave
Cade Roberts, Unsplash

Over the past year, we've noticed that the D. Del. judges have shown an increasing willingness to exclude late-disclosed evidence and theories. Until recently, motions to strike were difficult to win under the Third Circuit's Pennypack standard. If the prejudice caused by the late disclosure could be cured, it was almost impossible to get anything excluded.

Today, harkening back to an earlier time, Judge Andrews denied cross-motions to strike allegedly late-disclosed theories from the parties' opening expert reports. Although he found that the defendant's motion presented a close call on late disclosure, he concluded that "[e]ven if these infringement theories were untimely, I find, under the Pennypack factors, that their exclusion is not warranted."

At …

View
Newer
Older

Archive