WacoWatch

Judge Albright denies Defendant’s Motion to Strike Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint, finding that the procedure outlined in the Order Governing Proceedings allowed for the amendment.

On May 19, 2023, a Waco jury found that Dropbox did not infringe any of the patent claims asserted by Motion Offense, LLC.

Defendant Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) filed a motion for summary judgment of no remedy, which Judge Pitman granted on August 15, 2024, resulting in final judgment on all claims in favor of Microsoft.

Defendant Meta Platforms, Inc. (Meta) filed an opposed motion to transfer venue to the Northern District of California (NDCA). On August 7, 2024, Judge Albright denied Meta’s motion to transfer, finding Meta had failed to establish NDCA as a clearly more convenient forum to resolve the dispute.

Defendant Tableau Software, LLC (Tableau) filed an opposed motion to transfer venue to the Northern District of California. On May 21, 2024, Judge Pitman granted Tableau’s motion and transferred the proceeding between Tableau and iCharts LLC.

Defendants Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) and Robert Bosch GmbH (Bosch) (collectively, defendants) filed an opposed motion to stay the district court litigation pending ex parte reexamination of all asserted claims of the U.S. Patent No. 7,502,958 (the’958 Patent) and inter partes review of 10 out of the 25 claims of the ’958 Patent. 

Google petitioned the Federal Circuit for a writ of mandamus, requesting that the Federal Circuit direct the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to vacate its order denying Google’s motion to transfer and transfer to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

On October 19, 2023, the Federal Circuit denied Sony’s petition to transfer a case from the Western District of Texas to the Northern District of California.

On December 17, 2021, Judge Albright imposed sanctions on the plaintiff’s counsel who signed the motion for a new trial filed after a jury verdict for the defense in Freshhub, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.

The third quarter of 2021 was one of the busier quarters for Judge Albright on transfer orders.  For 3Q 2021, we reviewed the judge’s transfer-related orders and procedures.

On November 17, 2021, Judge Yeakel presented his yearly State of the Western District of Texas. Judge Yeakel discussed the nine or so patent cases that were recently transferred from Judge Albright’s Waco docket, via intradistrict transfer, to Austin.