InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[dndodd]

Parties in interDigital’s district court infringement suits agree to extend time period to complete FRAND and damages-related discovery
Blog Essential Patent Blog

June 2 2015
We previously reported on a scheduling order governing FRAND and damages-related discovery in InterDigital’s two patent infringement lawsuits pending in Delaware against ZTE and Nokia Inc., Nokia Corp. and Microsoft Mobile Oy (MMO), respectively. On Friday, the court entered a modified, agreed-to scheduling order that extends the time to complete such discovery by approximately seven (7) months.

As background, trials on liability were bifurcated from trials on damages and the defendants’ FRAND-related affirmative defenses. ZTE’s liability trial on three (3) of InterDigital’s asserted patents occured first and, last Fall, a Delaware jury found that ZTE’s accused 4G mobile devices infringed those patents. ZTE asserts a number of FRAND-related affirmative defenses to this finding of infringement. A second Delaware jury later found that ZTE’s accused 4G mobile devices did not infringe a fourth patent asserted by InterDigital.

In January of this year, the court entered a scheduling order setting December 4, 2015 as the deadline for completing FRAND and damages-related discovery in both the ZTE and Nokia/MMO cases, with the trial on these issues tentatively scheduled to take place in the Spring of 2016.

The liability trial against Nokia/MMO was scheduled to occur in April of this year. However, that trial was postponed until November. As a result of this change in Nokia/MMO’s liability trial date, the parties proposed, and, on Friday, the court entered, a scheduling order modifying the FRAND and damages-related discovery period and target trial dates as follows:

Completion of fact discovery related to FRAND/damages: Deadline moved from August 21, 2015 to March 4, 2016;
Disclosure of expert testimony for party with burden of proof: Deadline moved from September 18, 2015 to April 15, 2016;
Supplemental/rebuttal expert disclosure: Deadline moved from October 16, 2015 to May 13, 2016;
Reply expert reports from party with burden of proof: Deadline moved from November 9, 2015 to June 9, 2016;
Completion of expert discovery: Deadline moved from December 4, 2015 to July 13, 2016;
Joint letter outlining any issues the parties believe must be addressed at the status conference: Deadline moved from December 8, 2015 to July 20, 2016;
Status conference: Moved from December 15, 2015 to August 22, 2016;
Dispositive motions and deadline to object to expert testimony: Moved from December 29, 2015 to August 5, 2016;
ZTE target trial date: Moved from March 21, 2016 to October 17, 2016; and
MMO/Nokia target trial date: Moved from April 11, 2016 to November 14, 2016.

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