Last week, the District of Delaware began assigning patent cases to visiting judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of W.D. Pa. As far as I can tell, these are the first D. Del. cases to be assigned to Judge Ranjan.
Following the assignments, Judge Ranjan issued the following order in each case:
ORDER, regarding practices and procedures of Judge Ranjan. I was recently reassigned several patent cases in the District of Delaware. In order to provide some degree of procedural consistency, I intend to follow all local rules and standing orders of the District of Delaware, and I intend to utilize Judge Andrews forms and orders, until further notice. So counsel should comply with all requirements on Judge Andrews's webpage. To the extent that any order requires submission by e-mail or communication with the Court, counsel can email my courtroom deputy, Peter Kosloski, at peter_kosloski@pawd.uscourts.gov. Additionally, I intend to hold pre-trial conferences and hearings by videoconference, but I will entertain any requests for in-person conferences or hearings if counsel believes an in-person format is necessary. Signed by Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan on 6/1/2023.
See, e.g., Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Extreme Networks, Inc., C.A. No. 23-489, D.I. 7 (D. Del. June 1, 2023).
As Delaware counsel, this is a great order. We all very much appreciate the assistance and relief that the visiting judges bring, but sometimes practicing in front of a visiting judge can be tricky if they apply their home-state rules (which we may not yet be familiar with) or a combination of those rules and the District of Delaware rules. This kind of clarity will certainly help streamline things for the parties—and here in D. Del. we are all very familiar with Judge Andrews' rules and form orders.
Welcome, Judge Ranjan!
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