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Fed. Cir. Improves Cost / Benefit Calculus for Defendants Joining IPRs

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 24, 2020
Estoppel IPR

Previous equations for deciding whether to join an existing IPR
Previous equations for deciding whether to join an existing IPR Roman Mager, Unsplash

Today the Federal Circuit held that a party joining an existing IPR is not subject to estoppel on any grounds other than those that were actually raised. See the opinion below.

Before this, a plaintiff could argue that a defendant who joined an in-progress IPR was estopped on any anticipation or obviousness arguments that "reasonably could have [been] raised" in the IPR.

The Court here held, in short, that because a defendant joining an existing IPR is not allowed to add new grounds at all, it cannot be estopped except on those grounds actually raised.

It relied on the Facebook decision we talked about …

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Waiver, and How the Judges Have Handled Public Access to Remote Hearings

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 24, 2020
Litigation COVID-19

It's interesting that the Court is now regularly offering public access information for remote hearings. I can't recall it doing that before the coronavirus.

The only pre-coronavirus remote hearings I can think of were for scheduling and discovery dispute conferences, where public access is not usually a concern. Scheduling conferences often took place privately in chambers even when they were in-person, and discovery dispute conferences often involve confidential information anyway. It looks like they judges are still handling these how they always have.

These days, however, the Court regularly holds all kinds of other, more substantive hearings remotely, and most of the judges have been taking steps to allow the public to attend. Here is what the judges have been …

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Judge Andrews Lays Out Updated Thoughts on Transfer Motions, Transfers Case

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 23, 2020
Jumara Transfer

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

In an opinion today, Judge Andrews laid out his updated thoughts on transfer motions, particularly in light of COVID-19 travel restrictions and the related difficulties.

Here are some interesting points re: his views:

  • In granting transfer, he focused on the fact that the Plaintiff's principal place of business was not Delaware
  • He held that convenience of counsel is irrelevant, because parties can choose their counsel.
  • As far as court congestion, he noted that "[o]ne other Delaware judge and I each individually had more old cases than the entire Western District [of Washington]," and that the Judicial Conference has recommended …
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Judge Bryson Issues 22-Page Opinion in Two Days, Stays Case Pending Re-Exam Just 11 Weeks Before Trial

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 18, 2020
Re-exam Stay

Judge Bryon issued an interesting stay opinion last Friday.

The plaintiff had initially asserted six patents. Of those, four were dismissed under § 101, and the claims as to one of the remaining patents were severed and stayed pending IPR.

The case was set to go to trial on the last remaining patent on November 30, just over 11 weeks from the date of the order. But, last month, the PTO granted a request for ex parte reexamination of the sole asserted claim of that patent.

Shortly after that, Judge Bryson issued his opinion granting a motion to stay pending re-exam. A couple of interesting points:

  • What a turnaround! Defendant first indicated it intended to request a stay …
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Judge Noreika Rules that "Justice and Equity" Are Not Standalone Considerations in Collateral-Estoppel Analysis

Nathan R. Hoeschen, Sept. 17, 2020
Preclusion Estoppel

Plaintiff Estopped as Nearby District Moves to Overtake
Plaintiff Estopped as Nearby District Moves to Overtake Abed Ismail, Unsplash

Judge Noreika had a rare holding estopping a plaintiff from asserting the lone patent-in-suit patent due to collateral estoppel after trial.

The Court held a five-day bench trial in Biogen Int'l GmbH v. Amneal Pharms. LLC, C.A. No 17-823-MN in December 2019, dealing with a host on invalidity issues, including obviousness, enablement, and written description. The parties completed post-trial briefing in March 2020, and and a final opinion was thus expected in the not-too-distant future.

Unfortunately for Biogen, they also sued a different defendant, Mylan, in the Northern District of West Virginia on the same patent. That case went to trial in February 2020, on the sole …

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Judge Andrews Confirms Holding that Barred Full Prosecution History from Jury

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 16, 2020
FRE 403 FRE

Judge Andrews yesterday issued his opinion denying all post-trial motions in TQ Delta, LLC v. 2Wire, Inc., C.A. No. 13-1835-RGA (D. Del.). The jury had returned a verdict of infringement and no invalidity after a trial in January 2020.

One part of the opinion stands out—Judge Andrews discusses his decision to preclude the defendant from discussing the full prosecution history of the patent before the jury as prejudicial under FRE 403:

I ruled that 2Wire could elicit testimony about what prior art was in front of the patent examiner, but that testimony about a “lengthy history of cancelling claims, adding claims, rejecting claims, [and] rejecting new claims” was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 because …
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Updated Zoom Link for Today's Xcoal Trial

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 15, 2020
COVID-19

If these public Zoom links become more common, I'll likely stop posting about them (especially now that jury trials are set to resume). But for now, here is the Zoom link for today's trial in Xcoal, which restarted at 9 am this morning:

ORAL ORDER: The bench trial is available to the public by telephone, using dial in: 1-703-552-8058 and Conference Code: 944408, or by video, using the following link: https://trialgraphix.zoom.us/j/99196614906: Meeting ID: 991 9661 4906 Password: 166996. Audio or video reproduction of the proceeding is strictly prohibited. ORDERED by Judge Leonard P. Stark on 9/14/20. (ntl) (Entered: 09/14/2020)

As a reminder, this is the trial that was derailed immediately after opening statements by the receipt of an …

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Court: Document Production Two Months Before Trial Sufficient to Avoid Prejudice

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 14, 2020
Motion to Strike Pennypack

In the holding below, Judge Burke found that, under Pennypack, producing documents just over two months before trial was sufficient to provide time for "Defendants to be able to appropriately respond to Plaintiffs' expert's related position."

This is a shorter timeline than typically comes up. For example, Judge Burke has previously struck late-produced material where there were six months remaining before trial, although in that case the other Pennypack factors also played a role.

The facts here were not terrible for defendants. The documents had been produced by individual defendants in a set of related cases. According to the plaintiff, the expert reports at issue used the documents from various defendants to respond to arguments from those defendants, although …

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Judge Fallon Posts Public YouTube Mirror for Tuesday Markman Hearing [Updated: Now Dial-In Only]

Andrew E. Russell, Sept. 14, 2020
Zoom COVID-19

Looks like Judge Fallon is trying out a new way of doing public hearings, with a YouTube mirror of a private Zoom teleconference at 10:00am ET on Tuesday 9/15:

ORAL ORDER- The Markman Hearing on 9/15/2020 will be a public hearing. The YouTube link for interested members of the public to observe the live Zoom session is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-9WpLOvaLk&feature=youtu.be.

NexStep, Inc. v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, C.A. No. 19-1031-RGA-SRF (D. Del.).

The hearing is scheduled to last 3 hours and cover 6 terms.

To my knowledge, this is the first D. Del. hearing to post a public YouTube (rather than Zoom) link, at least in the IP space.

Honestly this sounds like a good way …

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