A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: Congestion

Judge Stark to Be Nominated for the Federal Circuit

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 3, 2021
Congestion Judges

Wilmington, <a href='#' class='abbreviation' data-bs-toggle='tooltip' data-placement='top' title='Delaware'>DE</a>
Wilmington, DE Andrew Russell, CC BY 2.0

Big news! The White House announced today that Judge Leonard P. Stark of the District of Delaware is set to be nominated to the Federal Circuit.

Assuming he is confirmed, Judge Stark will actually be the second judge to be elevated to an appellate court from the District of Delaware in recent memory, following The Honorable Kent A. Jordan's elevation to the Third Circuit in 2006.

Congratulations to Judge Stark!

Another Judicial Vacancy? No problem.

Despite its enormous patent case load, the District of Delaware remains a small court, with just four district court judges (although the Judicial Conference …

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Two Judges Denied Requests to Reschedule Hearings Last Week: A Symptom of COVID Congestion, or Just Random?

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 1, 2021
Congestion COVID-19

Traffic Congestion
Randy Lisciarelli, Unsplash

It's not all that common for judges in the District of Delaware to deny requests to reschedule hearings. But last week we saw two requests denied. And, in both instances, the Court suggested that the party requesting cancellation should just have another attorney prepare for argument rather than rescheduling.

In one instance, Judge Andrews denied a request to reschedule a Markman hearing, stating that:

ORAL ORDER: The request to change the date of the Markman . . . is DENIED. Plaintiff has at least three non-Delaware lawyers. Simply because one of them has a trial scheduled on December 9th is not a reason to change the date of the Markman. There is plenty of time …
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Time to Decision on Motions Largely Unaffected by Lack of Trials

Nathan R. Hoeschen, July 31, 2020
Congestion COVID-19

Delaware suspended jury trials on March 18, 2020 and they are currently not scheduled to resume until the end of August. Although bench trials are technically allowed under this scheduling order,only one has taken place so far.

With this major time-sink gone, it struck IP/DE that we might see more opinions being issued faster. But so far this does not seem to be the case.

According to DocketNavigator, the Court issued 25 discrete opinions on 12(b)(6) motions between March 18th and last week (not counting decisions on objections to R&R's), with an average decision time of 164 days from the filing of the last brief. During the same period last year, however, the Court issued 32 such opinions, …

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