The Judges of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, have approved proposed substantive modifications to the Patent Local Rules listed below. See Summary of Proposed Revisions and Invitation for Public Comment. Pursuant to Civil L.R. 83-2(b), public comments on the proposed modifications may be submitted to media@cand.uscourts.gov until September 18, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. PDT.
The proposed amendments to Patent Local Rules 3-2, 3-4, 3-8 and 3-9, with a new proposed Rule 3-10, seek to achieve the following goals:
- Require the party asserting infringement to produce all licenses that may be relevant to the accused instrumentality without worrying about “comparability” and without limitation to licenses that might be relevant only to hypothetical license negotiations, because such agreements are relevant for other purposes, and relevance is in the eye of the beholder;
- Require greater specificity regarding damages theories, and then hold the disclosing party to their disclosed theories absent leave of court, as our rules do with other kinds of contentions; and
- Require a meeting between counsel and clients to discuss settlement shortly after service of the damages contentions, with a written certification that the meeting occurred but without a discussion of the content of the meeting.
Summary of Proposed Revisions and Invitation for Public Comment