Other than in ANDA cases, most (but not all) patent cases these days involve a demand for jury trial. FRCP 38 sets a deadline for requesting a jury trial within 14 days after the last pleading directed to the issue is served:
On any issue triable of right by a jury, a party may demand a jury trial by . . . serving the other parties with a written demand—which may be included in a pleading—no later than 14 days after the last pleading directed to the issue is served; and . . . filing the demand . . . .
FRCP 38.
This rule includes a few interesting things, just from the text:
- It sets out the demand requirement by issue, not by action
- It says parties "may" include the jury demand in a pleading, not that they must
- A party gets 14 days after service of the "last pleading directed to the issue" to serve a jury demand
District of Delaware Local Rule 38.1 also covers this issue, and defines the acceptable language for a jury demand in a pleading:
If a party demands a jury trial by endorsing it on a pleading, as permitted by Fed. R. Civ. P. 38(b), a notation shall be placed in the caption of the pleading stating "Demand For Jury Trial" or the equivalent. This notation will serve as a sufficient demand under Fed. R. Civ. P. 38(b).
In my experience, parties who want to request a jury trial almost always ...
