Apple Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., No. 11C 8540, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jan. 24, 2012) (Posner, J. sitting by designation).

In light of the upcoming trial of this case – in stages beginning with liability on June 11, 2012 – and the interest because of both the high profile parties and the fact that Seventh Circuit Judge Posner is presiding over the case, I am going to go out of order and profile a significant number of opinions from this case during June.

Judge Posner issued several brief rulings on a variety of damages and discovery matters:

  • The parties were given until February 6, 2012, to file briefs setting forth the proper remedies – not necessarily amounts – should the Court find against Motorola on any of Apple’s equitable defenses, including equitable estoppel and unclean hands, for allegedly failing to offer reasonable, nondiscriminatory license terms for its standards-based patents.
  • The parties were given one week to submit a proposed schedule for the completion of all damages discovery.
  • The parties were to submit briefs submitting their view of the proper standards for determining damages for patent infringement.
  • All equitable defenses would be tried separately one week after the liability trial.
  • Damages would also be tried separately one week after the equitable defenses trial.
  • The Court excluded an Apple standards-setting witness.  Apple was given two weeks to submit a brief explaining why the standards did not speak for themselves and to propose another witness without an actual or potential conflict of interest.
  • The Court ordered the parties to limit the number of patents they wished to litigate at the liability trial and then for each opposing party to identify its list of defenses to the asserted patents.