Waco Patent Litigation Updates

Judge Albright has now entered his latest version of the Order Governing Proceedings – Patent Case: Version 3.2.  This is an update from Version 3.1, posted September 22.  The two most significant changes are what we anticipated, as explained in our last post: (1) non-simultaneous claim construction briefing; and (2) default limits on pre-Markman discovery.  Here is a more comprehensive look at the key changes from the previous OGP version:

Case Management Conference:  

Since OGP Version 3.1, the Court entered a Standing Order Regarding Notice of Readiness requiring the parties to submit a Case Readiness Status Report prior to the initial CMC (see previous post HERE).  At the CMC, the parties should be prepared to discuss any pre-Markman issues raised in the joint Case Readiness Status Report.

Default Pre-Markman Discovery Limits:

The parties must still request leave to conduct pre-Markman discovery, which the Court usually grants.  These are the default limits:

• Interrogatories: 5 per party
• RFPs: 5 per party
• Fact depositions: 4 hours for a 30(b)(6) witness per party

If a party provides multiple declarations in its briefing, the Court will allow the other side limited additional discovery.

Limited Number of Terms:

The Court has decreased the default number of claim terms to be construed per patent:

Markman briefing:

The Court has done away with simultaneous claim construction briefing.  The page limits remain the same, with the addition of a Sur-Reply brief:

Schedule:

Appendix A - Default Schedule has been updated accordingly to account for the Markman briefing changes: