We've posted a lot about the Mavexar hearings. Earlier this month, two of the plaintiffs in cases that had hearings scheduled, Creekview IP LLC and Waverly Licensing LLC, filed nearly-identical petitions for mandamus.
The petitions are linked below. In each, the petitioner seeks to reverse Chief Judge Connolly's order scheduling an evidentiary hearing to investigate compliance with the Court's standing orders:
Petitioner respectfully requests that the Court issue a writ of mandamus reversing the Memorandum Order and ending the judicial inquisition of Petitioner.
The petitions argue that the Court lacked Article III standing, because the cases had been dismissed, that Chief Judge Connolly abuse his discretion in issuing the standing order, and that Congress has deemed the "real party in interest" irrelevant in patent cases.
These petitions differ from the Nimitz mandamus petition in that they more directly challenge the Court's standing orders. But they still echo some of language and arguments of the prior petition, calling out the Court's supposed "illegal and unprecedented crusade" and characterizing it as an "inquisition."
Thus far, the response has been more muted than last time. In both of the cases, the opposing party declined to defend the Court's orders. And, unlike the previous mandamus petition, which attracted six parties moving to file amicus briefs, these cases attracted only two: Intel and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Federal Circuit quickly resolved the prior petition, but the Court's opinion didn't reach the question of whether the Court had authority to issue its standing orders. We'll keep an eye out for the Federal Circuit's resolution of these petitions as well.
Blog Update Note
There was a bit of a delay in posting about these, in part because I've been tied up since our new baby arrived last week.
That said, my co-blogger Nate has done a great job holding down the fort in my absence—thank you Nate!—and things should be back to normal pretty soon.
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