For the first time, Judge Stephanos Bibas of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has taken at least two patent cases by designation in the District of Delaware this year (along with a number of non-patent cases):
- TexasLDPC Inc. v. Broadcom Inc., C.A. No. 18-1966-SB (D. Del.)
- Boston Scientific Corporation et al v. Micro-Tech Endoscopy USA Inc., C.A. No. 18-1869-SB (D. Del.)
We mentioned Boston Scientific earlier this week; it was set to go to a jury trial July 12, 2021.
On Wednesday Judge Bibas entered the following order on the docket, staying the case one day before the pretrial conference:
ORAL ORDER, The pretrial conference and trial date are postponed indefinitely, pending resolution of the parties' Daubert and summary-judgment motions. Entered by Judge Stephanos Bibas on 6/16/2021. (nmg) (Entered: 06/16/2021)
This is interesting because it looks like the parties in the case have been busy lately with pretrial filings, and I don't see anything in a quick review of the docket that suggests that either party requested a stay.
So it may be that this was a sua sponte cancellation of trial less than a month before its planned start date (although it may also be that there are communications outside of what is listed on the docket). At this point, the out-of-town counsel for the parties may be into the panicked oh-no-can-we-cancel-the-hotel-reservations stage.
It will be also interesting to see the orders on the pending motions when they issue; it seems likely that the Court expects that they will resolve the entire action.
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