The Waco Division continues to be a topic of much attention in legal media:
- As we noted previously, the Federal Circuit recently ruled that Judge Albright did not abuse his discretion in transferring the True Chemical v. Performance Chemical case from the Midland-Odessa Division to the Waco Division. Note, however, that in connection with a late-breaking motion for discovery sanctions (about which more coverage will follow on the blog ASAP), that trial will not proceed this coming Monday.
- Prof. Dennis Crouch at Patently-O covers the mandamus order: Texas is Big: Albright did not Abuse Discretion in Moving Case from Midland to Waco
- So does Perry Cooper of Bloomberg Law: Patent Trial Between Fracking Services Rivals to Proceed in Waco (subscription required)
- And Adam Lidgett of Law360: Fed. Circ. Denies Bid To Undo IP Case Transfer In Texas
- In last week’s roundup we brought you the story of the law professors’ open letter advocating for greater transparency in sealed filings. There was additional follow-on coverage this week:
- From Prof. Eugene Volokh at his eponymously named blog the Volokh Conspiracy: Public Access to Records in Patent Cases
- And on Law360, specifically in connection with the VLSI-Intel II pretrial conference held this past Wednesday afternoon: Intel-VLSI Hearing Held In Secret, Inflaming IP Profs’ Concerns (subscription required)
- Dave Simpson of Law360 covers Judge Albright’s latest standing order concerning the timing of resolving motions to transfer before Markman hearings—and based on anecdotal observation, we can say that the Judge is actively communicating that position to litigants at all his hearings: After Rebukes, Albright To Handle Transfer Bids ‘Promptly’ (subscription required)
- Last week we (briefly) brought you the story of the Federal Circuit’s mandamus order in In re: TracFone staying proceedings pending resolution of a motion to transfer, and the District Court’s subsequent denial of that motion. TracFone has now filed a follow-on mandamus petition regarding the merits of the District Court’s order.
- Prof. Dennis Crouch at Patently-O has coverage: TracFone: Mandamus All Over Again
- And so does Law360: TracFone Urges Fed. Circ. To Override Albright Once Again (subscription required)
- And Michael Borella at Patent Docs has a quick review of the VLSI v. Intel I trial
And as a few closing links of general interest (or at least general interest to patent lawyers):
- Over at IPWatchdog, Dhananjay Kumar Das dives into the ever-fruitful topic of fair compensation for standard-essential patents: The Fairness of FRAND: Patent Pools, SSO Policies and the Way Forward
- Sticking with the topic of SEPs, at IAM, Tim Pohlmann of IPlytics GmbH takes a look at How much 5G is needed in cars?
- And finally, James Gatto of Shepherd Mullin tries to unpack the myriad complications that may attach to incorporating existing IP assets into the hot new digital art trend of non-fungible tokens: Protecting IP and Limiting Liability When Licensing IP for Digital Art and NFTs
See you next week.