Chicago IP Attorney & Lawyer : R. David Donoghue : Chicago IP Litigation Blog

Trading Techs. Int'l., Inc. v. eSpeed, Inc., No 04 C 5312, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 27, 2007) (Moran, Sen. J.).*

Judge Moran denied defendant eSpeed’s motion to compel production of damages documents from plaintiff Trading Technologies (“TT”). eSpeed sought, among other things, monthly licensing reports, monthly product profitability reports and documents for determining TT’s costs and sales budgets. TT argued that it had already produced the requested information, to the extent that it was kept in the form requested. And to the extent that the information was not kept in the requested form, TT stated that it had provided documents sufficient to determine the requested information. Noting that counsel are officers of the Court, the Court relied upon TT’s representations and denied eSpeed’s motion because TT stated that the documents had been produced.

Trial is set to start in this case the week of September 10. Between now and then expect to see several more opinions in this case and its related cases (there are two weighty summary judgment opinions still in my queue, as well as several other smaller opinions and orders). Additionally, I have some other obligations that week, but am planning to blog some of the trial. Stay tuned.

*You can download this opinion here and you can read much more about this case and related cases in the Blog's archives.

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Trading Techs. Int'l., Inc. v. eSpeed, Inc., No 04 C 5312, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 20, 2007) (Moran, Sen. J.).*

Judge Moran denied defendant eSpeed, Inc.'s (“eSpeed”) renewed motion to bifurcate willfulness and damages from the liability phase of the trial.  The Court denied eSpeed's original bifurcation motion.  The Court noted that since the initial motion, the Court had issued claim constructions largely favorable to eSpeed and summary judgment of noninfringement as to the majority of eSpeed's accused products.  But the Court had also denied eSpeed's motions for summary judgment of invalidity, leaving invalidity to be resolved by the jury.  The Court reasoned that the Real v. Bunn-O-Matic, 195 F.R.D. 618 (N.D. Ill. 2000) factors weighed in favor of not bifurcating the trial or were neutral.  The Court's summary judgment of noninfringement rulings severely limited the damages case and "significantly simplified" the infringement issues. 

The Court also held that eSpeed would not be prejudiced because of a Quantum dilemma.  The Court explained that the Quantum dilemma -- created when a defendant had to choose between maintaining privilege and defending itself against willfulness allegations by producing an opinion letter -- was substantially limited by the Federal Circuit's Knorr-Bremse Sys. v. Dana Corp., 383 F.3d 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2004) decision eliminating the adverse inference where defendant did not obtain or produce an opinion of counsel.  The Court also noted that any potentially prejudicing evidence at trial could be cured with a limiting instruction.

Trial is set to start in this case the week of September 10. Between now and then expect to see several more opinions (including another this week on a bifurcation issue) in this case and its related cases. Additionally, I have some other obligations that week, but am planning to blog some of the trial. Stay tuned.

*You can download this opinion here  and you can read much more about this case and related cases in the Blog's archives.

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On a related note, Chief Judge Michel of the Federal Circuit has written a letter (following up an earlier, broader letter and his Congressional testimony, discussed at Patently-O) strenuously arguing that the Act's damage apportionment sections are impractical and that Congress should either retain the current damages law which has undergone "decades of refinement" and is "highly stable and well understood by litigators as well as judges."  Here is some discussion of Judge Michel's letter:

• Patently-O
  
• Patent Baristas

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