The Federal Circuit Advisory Council, comprised of leading judges, academics and practitioners, recently released two groundbreaking orders to help cabin the time and expense involved in patent cases. And then those model orders disappeared from the Advisory Council's website.
The first order, "An e-Discovery Model Order," limits ESI production to five custodians per producing party and five search terms per custodian. Although the parties may seek leave of court to add additional custodians and search terms, the order includes a presumption that the requesting party will have to pay for the additional cost incurred.
The second order, "A Model Order Limiting Excess Patent Claims and Prior Art," limits the number of claims and prior art that may be asserted. The patentee is at first permitted to assert no more than ten claims from each patent and no more than a total of 32 claims. Similarly, the defendant(s) are permitted to assert no more than 12 prior art references against each patent and not more than a total of 40 claims. Following claim construction, the patentee must further narrow its claims to five per patent (among the originally asserted claims) and no more than 16 total claims, while the defendant(s) is limited to six asserted prior art references per patent and no more than 20 total.
Within two days of the release of the second model order in July of 2013, the Advisory Council's webpage was removed from the Federal Circuit's webpage in its entirety. When it came back up a few days later, the model orders were gone. In their place was the following statement: "The Advisory Council published model orders concerning e-discovery and limitations on claims and prior art, and posted a disclaimer that the Court did not approve the model orders. To avoid the risk of any misperception that the Court has endorsed or taken any position on the model orders through the Advisory Council, or otherwise, the Advisory Council confirms that it does not sponsor or endorse orders." This statement is all the more odd for the fact that Chief Judge Rader was a member of the subcommittees of the Advisory Council that drafted and approved both orders.
Without attempting to speculate (too much) on why the Model Orders disappear, this program will review the Model Orders and summarize the impact they have had on individual cases and the Local Rules adopted by the district courts.
Speaker:
Aaron Seth Jacobs
Cesari and McKenna, LLP
(Please note that this program is not available for CLE credit.)
If you intend to take a course for CLE credit, please make sure your state is listed in the "Accreditation" section to the upper right of the program description. Accreditation displayed is unique to the purchased program format (live conference, live webcast, on demand, podcast). Credit totals listed for live conferences are the maximum credits available. Credits issued will be based upon actual time in attendance. Credit totals for other formats are for complete programs. Partial credit is not available for any online or downloadable format.
West LegalEdcenter will not provide accreditation for states not listed.
This product is intended for individual use by the named purchaser. Group viewings for online programs may be arranged for five or more attorneys within the same organization prior to viewing by emailing west.wlec-sales@thomson.com.
