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After the defendants Ingenico S.A.’s, Ingenico Corp.’s, and Ingenico Inc.’s (the “Ingenico Defendants”) prevailed at trial, the defendants filed a Motion to Declare this an Exceptional Case and For Attorney’s Fees Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 285.

The district court began its analysis by noting that “[d]istrict courts may determine whether a case is ‘exceptional’ in the case-by-case exercise of their discretion, considering the totality of the circumstances.” Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health and Fitness, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 1749, 1756 (2014). Section 285 imposes ‘one and only one constraint’ on a district court’s discretion to award attorney fees in patent litigation: the case must be ‘exceptional.’ Octane Fitness, 134 S. Ct. at 1755-56. The Ingenico Defendants must show exceptionality by a preponderance of the evidence. Iris Connex, LLC v. Dell, Inc., 2017 WL 365634, at *10 (E.D. Tex. Jan. 25, 2017).”
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The plaintiff Alexsam, Inc. (“Alexsam”) filed an ex parte application to compel compliance with a subpoena to produce documents against a third party to the action, MasterCard. Alexsam had first served a Rule 45 subpoena on MasterCard several months earlier but had not received the documents it requested. Alexsam contended that it was being “stonewalled by delays in responding [by MasterCard] and then a last-minute demand that is unreasonable” after the close of fact discovery. As a result, Alexsam sought ex parte relief, arguing that it has acted diligently, but that MasterCard, while at first appearing cooperative, then refused to comply.

The district court began its analysis of the ex parte application by noting that ex parte applications are solely for extraordinary relief and should be used with discretion. See Local Rule 37-3 (to be heard on an ex parte basis, the moving party must show “irreparable injury or prejudice not attributable to the lack of diligence of the moving party”).

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As trial approached in this patent infringement action, the plaintiff, 511 Innovations, Inc., filed a motion to exclude a witness at trial, Tim Benner from testifying at trial. The motion asserted that the defendant, Samsung, “did not make any written disclosure of Dr. Tim Benner as a potential witness, or even a person with relevant knowledge, until January 23, 2017.”

The disclosure occurred after the close of discovery and only a few weeks before the pretrial conference. In opposing the motion, Samsung explained that it planned to substitute Dr. Benner as its corporate representative at trial, in place of Joy McBeth.
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Plaintiff Genes Industry, Inc. (“Genes”) filed a patent infringement action against Defendant Custom Blinds and Components, Inc. (“Custom”). The patent discloses a winding wheel for use on window coverings. Custom filed a motion to continue its expert report deadlines from November 28, 2016 to February 10, 2017, and to continue the expert discovery cut-off date from December 16, 2016 to May 17, 2017.

In reviewing the request, the district court noted that “Defendant retained a new counsel way back in early November and the Court ordered the attorney substitution on November 17, 2016. This was 11 days before Defendant’s expert reports were due. Defendant’s counsel states that it took significant time to review the case after receiving the file on November 19, 2016. For some reason, Defendant’s counsel waited until just two days before Defendant’s expert reports were due before attempting to enter a stipulation with Plaintiff’s counsel to extend expert report deadlines. Plaintiff’s counsel declined this attempt because the Court’s previous order granting an extension of expert report deadlines had stated in capital letters that ‘no further continuances [would] be granted without a further very strong showing of good cause.'”
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In a previous order, the district court granted a motion to stay pending Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) but deferred ruling on the Motion to Stay with respect to EMC Corporation “until EMC Corporation has filed a Notice with the Court indicating whether it is bound by the statutory estoppel provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 315(e).”

Thereafter, EMC filed a Notice stating “if the Court stays the above-captioned litigation pending resolution of the inter partes reviews filed on the asserted patents then EMC agrees to be bound by the full statutory estoppel provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 315.”
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Posted in: E.D. Texas
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In this patent infringement action, Plaid sought to exclude the entirety of the plaintiff’s damage expert’s, Robinson’s, reasonable royalty analysis as based on an apportionment “plucked out of thin air.” Yodlee opposed the motion and asserted that its apportionment methodology was justified by the facts of the case.

The district court began its analysis by noting that “[Ii infringement is shown, the jury will need to ‘apportion the defendant’s profits and the patentee’s damages between the patented feature and the unpatented features using reliable and tangible evidence.’ Ericsson, Inc. v. D-Link Sys., Inc., 773 F.3d 1201, 1226 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). ‘The essential requirement is that the ultimate reasonable royalty award must be based on the incremental value that the patented invention adds to the end product.’ Id.”
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Posted in: Damages
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In this patent infringement action, Teva inadvertently produced documents to Sunovion. Teva subsequently attempted to claw back the documents under the parties’ protective order. Sunovion moved to compel the inadvertently produced documents.

In analyzing the motion to compel, the district court noted that it had “reviewed the parties’ submissions, the Discovery Confidentiality Order (DCO), and, in particular, paragraphs 28 and 30 of the DCO.” The district court further noted that “[t]hese paragraphs are applicable to the instant matter insofar as they refer to notice ‘promptly after its discovery’ and ‘prompt remedial action’ in the event of an inadvertent disclosure.”
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Posted in: Discovery
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In keeping with the standing order issued by Judge Gilstrap for jury trials that strongly discouraged jury research in the Eastern District of Texas, Magistrate Judge Love recently issued a similar order for patent case pending in the Eastern District of Texas.

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Plaintiff Krausz Industries Ltd. (“Krausz”) filed a motion for an order compelling Defendants Smith-Blair, Inc. and Sensus USA, Inc. (collectively “Smith-Blair”) to allow discovery into various attorney-client communications and work product related to an advice of counsel defense.

Although the parties agreed that raising an advice of counsel defense can result in a waiver of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine, the parties disagreed about the scope of the waiver. Smith-Blair asserted that any waiver should be limited to communications and related work product between Smith-Blair and its opinion counsel on the issue of noninfringement that occurred before litigation began.
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Posted in: Discovery
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The plaintiff filed an ex parte application to be relieved of admissions that were deemed admitted for failure to respond.

In analyzing the ex parte application, the district court first concluded that the plaintiff had not justified the filing of an ex parte application rather than a noticed motion. “Plaintiff has not shown Plaintiff’s ‘case will be irreparably prejudiced if the underlying motion is heard according to regular noticed motion procedures.’ Mission Power, 883 F. Supp. at 492. To the contrary, there is no mention anywhere in the Application or supporting declaration that there is any crisis or emergency warranting ex parte relief, nor does it appear to the Court that Plaintiff’s case would be ‘irreparably prejudiced’ if the underlying motion were heard according to regular noticed motion procedures. Moreover, to the extent there is any crisis, Plaintiff has not shown it is ‘without fault in creating the crisis that requires ex parte relief, or that the crisis occurred as a result of excusable neglect.’ Id. ”
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Posted in: Discovery
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