Reader, I feel like we know each other, so I'm going to level with you. We are going to write a post about absolutely everything Judge Williams does for the next month or so.
New standing order? POST.
First trial? POST.
Pets a cute cat? 2 POSTS.
If you stop clicking? We'll just start juicing the headlines (Judge Williams DESTROYS cat!). This is the world we all live in now.
On a totally unrelated note, Judge Williams issued an opinion today continuing the trend of longer and longer IPR stays. The parties in Personal Genomics Taiwan, Inc. v. Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc., No. 19-1810-GBW-MPT, had initially stipulated to a stay pending an IPR. That stay expired in February when the case was still assigned to Judge Stark. Two weeks later the defendant moved to stay pending appeal of the IPR (which had been only partially successful). Briefing closed right around the time the case was transferred to the vacant judgeship.
No Vacancy
Once assigned to the VAC docket (the parties did not consent to a magistrate), the case continued apace with the parties going through all of Markman briefing and even submitting comments on their tutorials. Neither party requested argument on the motion to resume the stay pending appeal, no opinion was issued.
An Assignment
Judge Williams was assigned the case on September 7 and, fortuitously, the parties were due to submit a status report on the 8th. Exactly a week later, Judge Williams issued a brief memorandum order granting the motion.
The ruling itself was in line with what we have come to expect from the District. With the Court finding that the case status—before the close of fact discovery and a Markman—weighed in favor of granting the stay as did the potential for simplification, given that it addressed the remaining claims of the lone patent in suit and had the potential to clarify certain claim construction issues even if the claims ultimately survived.
To my eyes, the real takeaway here was how quickly the Court reached a decision on this relatively minor motion in a newly assigned case. It will be interesting to see how judge Williams prioritizes the ripe motions in his many newly assigned cases going forward.
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