A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: Litigation Funding

Now a Defendant in a Mavexar Case—Not a Plaintiff—Has Moved for a Protective Order

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 21, 2022
Litigation Funding Standing Orders

"Lamplight" isn't the worst name for a patent assertion entity. Riley Bourdon, Unsplash

Today brought yet another twist in the ongoing Mavexar saga. In one of the cases, a defendant—not the plaintiff—moved unopposed for a protective order to prevent the Mavexar-related LLC from producing the documents that the defendant sent to it (and that, presumably, the Mavexar-related LLC may have sent to Mavexar itself).

Specifically, the defendant moved for a protective order to "prevent the public filing of three categories of information that ABB expects to be provided by Plaintiff and its counsel in response to the Court’s Memorandum Order," including (1) documents related to sales and royalty rates, (2) communications related to the terms of the settlement agreement, and (3) the agreement itself.

As to those three categories, the defendant asked the Court to issue a protective order that protects the info from disclosure in both filings and in future hearings or ...

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In Response to Mandamus Petition, Federal Circuit Stays Mavexar Order

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 18, 2022
Litigation Funding Standing Orders

Stop
Markus Spiske, Unsplash

These Mavexar-related cases are developing so fast, we can hardly keep up!

We've talked about how Chief Judge Connolly issued an order directing certain of the Mavexar-related entities to produce documents, including materials related to their communications with Mavexar. We also discussed the Nimitz entities' petition for a writ of mandamus to stop enforcement of the order and to stop the Court's "judicial inquisition."

Yesterday, the Federal Circuit responded and stayed the order:

IT IS ORDERED THAT:
Defendants CNET Media, Inc., Bloomberg L.P.; BuzzFeed, Inc.; and Imagine Learning, Inc. are directed to respond to the petition no later than November 30, 2022, whether defendants fully defend, partly defend, or decline to defend the challenged order. …
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Mavexar Entity Petitions for Writ of Mandamus to Stop Court's "Judicial Inquisition"

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 16, 2022
Litigation Funding Standing Orders

Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier
Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier Unknown

Yesterday, Nimitz Technologies LLC, one of the entities involved in the recent Mavexar hearings, filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Federal Circuit to "review and reverse" the Court's most recent memorandum order in those cases, and to "direct[] the district court to terminate its judicial inquisition of the Petitioner."

If you recall from our post last week, the Court issued an order in three of the Mavexar-related cases directing Nimitz and two other plaintiffs to disclose a broad range of communications and documents, including things like retention agreements, bank account statements, and communications between the plaintiffs or their principals or attorneys and Mavexar.

Nimitz argues that the documents and communications …

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Court Orders Three Mavexar-Related Plaintiffs to Produce Communications with Mavexar, Attorney Retention Agreements, Bank Account Statements, and Sworn Declarations Regarding Assets

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 10, 2022
Mavexar NPE

Uh-oh.
Uh-oh. AI-Generated, displayed with permission

Shortly after today's hearing regarding compliance with Chief Judge Connolly's standing orders, the Court issued orders in each of the cases from the similar hearing last week, requiring production of a broad range of communications among the plaintiffs, Mavexar, and their attorneys.

The Court issued similar orders in each case, each setting forth the Court's concerns:

Whereas the testimony of witnesses and representations of counsel at the November 4, 2022 hearing give rise to concerns that include but are not limited to the accuracy of statements in filings made by [each plaintiff] with the Court and whether the real parties in interest are before the Court;

The Court then issued production of …

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Standing Order Hearings: Court Questions Head of NPE LLC Who Is Married to Attorney at Mavexar

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 10, 2022
Mavexar Piercing the Corporate Veil

"This is how I'm going to explain to my wife why she should have an LLC that holds our company's patents." AI-Generated, displayed with permission

Chief Judge Connolly held another hearing today regarding compliance with his standing orders on litigation funding, this time exploring the relationship between NPE plaintiff Backertop Licensing LLC and MAVEXAR, the entity that is said to have created Backertop.

Last week's hearing involved testimony from a sales person and a restaurateur who owns a food truck, each of whom had been recruited by MAVEXAR to be the sole member of a patent assertion NPE, as an "investment" opportunity or a way to make "passive income."

Each "owner" received either 5% or 10% of the …

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The Next Litigation Funding Hearing is Thursday, November 10, 2022

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 9, 2022
Mavexar Litigation Funding

Image offered without comment.
Image offered without comment. AI-Generated, displayed with permission

We've had an ongoing series of posts about the remarkable hearing that Chief Judge Connolly held last week regarding litigation funding.

I wanted to post a heads up that another hearing on that topic in the Backertop cases, C.A. Nos. 22-572 and 22-573, is set for Thursday 11/10 at 10:00 am in Courtroom 4b. So far, based on the docket, it looks like the hearing is likely to go forward.

Unlike Friday's hearing, tomorrow's involves only two related cases, and likely a single witness. But it may still be worth stopping in if you are regularly involved in these kinds of NPE cases.

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People Seem Interested in Friday's Hearing Involving Mavexar—Some Further Thoughts

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 7, 2022
Litigation Funding Standing Orders

A lot of people are interested in Chief Judge Connolly's Friday hearing about litigation funding. Here is a chart of this blog's traffic for its entire existence through this weekend:

Blog Traffic Through Nov. 6 2022

And here is a chart for that same period of time, plus one day—the day we circulated the post about Friday’s hearing:

Blog Traffic Through Nov. 7 2022

The Court clearly hit on an issue that people care about!

Why an Entity Like Mavexar Might Want to (Supposedly) Operate This Way

Watching some of the comments on yesterday's post, one of the questions that came up was why a patent assertion entity would be interested in giving away 5-10% of their settlement revenue to what seems to be a random person, in exchange for that person …

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A Wild Hearing: Chief Judge Connolly Flips Over Rock, Finds Mavexar LLC Crawling Around, Controlling Patent Litigation and Giving Hapless Patent Owners Just 5-10%

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 4, 2022
FRCP 7.1 Litigation Funding

Under Rock
AI-Generated, displayed with permission

Wow.

I flagged on Wednesday that Chief Judge Connolly planned to hold an evidentiary hearing today regarding compliance with his litigation funding and entity ownership orders in three cases. Well, I went, and it was one of the most remarkable hearings I've seen in a patent case.

The purpose of the hearing was to dig into whether the parties complied with Chief Judge Connolly's standing orders regarding litigation funding and entity ownership.

But the Court's statements at the hearing offered some insight into what motivated those orders in the first place: Chief Judge Connolly believes (as he has said before) that the District Court is not a "star chamber," and that the public has …

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Update on Chief Judge Connolly's Evidentiary Hearings Regarding Compliance with His Litigation Funding and Disclosure Orders—First Hearing is Friday November 4 at 10am

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 2, 2022
Litigation Funding Standing Orders

These patent plaintiffs may have rough seas ahead.
AI-Generated

It seems there has been a lot of interest in Chief Judge Connolly's evidentiary hearings about compliance with his standing orders regarding disclosure of litigation funding and entity ownership, which are now scheduled in over 20 cases.

I've had a few questions about when the hearings are going forward, so here is an update.

Here Is When the Hearings Are Scheduled

Here is when the hearings are set for, at least as of today:

  • Friday, November 4, 2022, at 10 am in Courtroom 4B: Cases involving Mellaconic IP, Lamplight Licensing LLC, and Nimitz Technologies LLC are set for hearings regarding compliance with the Court's third-party litigation funding order. See C.A. Nos. 22-244, 22-541, 22-418, 22-1017, 21-1247, 21-1362, 21-1855, …
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Chief Judge Connolly Orders Plaintiffs’ Individual Owners to Appear for In-Person for Evidentiary Hearings Regarding Compliance with His Standing Orders—in at least 14 Different Cases

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 12, 2022
Litigation Funding Standing Orders

Bullet Holes
Mykola Makhlai, Unsplash

At this point it's clear that Chief Judge Connolly's standing orders regarding initial disclosures and litigation funding are no joke, and plaintiffs need to comply with them or risk consequences.

Today, the Court took the further step of requiring the owners of plaintiff entities in at least 14 cases to appear in-person for evidentiary hearings regarding compliance with his standing orders.

The orders today generally took the following form:

Whereas the amended corporate disclosure forms Plaintiff filed in the above-captioned cases identify [owner name(s)] as Plaintiff s owner; and
Whereas the Court has concerns about whether Plaintiff has complied with the Court's standing order regarding third-paty litigation funding [or about the accuracy of the …
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