In a recent oral order, Judge Leonard P. Stark denied defendants’ motion to sever and stay two related actions with respect to a patent that is currently in reexamination proceedings. Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Symantec Corp., C.A. No. 10-1067-LPS; Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Trend Micro Incorporated, et al., C.A. No. 12-1581 (D. Del. June 3, 2014). The Court explained that a stay would not provide “complete” simplification, and this factor only slightly favored a stay since only two out of the four patents are involved in reexamination, and therefore a stay may actually increase the number of trials the Court would eventually preside over. The case was also far along, with discovery closed, trial dates set (by this same order), and both sides having already invested “enormous resources.”
The Court explained that it was also “not persuaded that Defendants are not seeking an unfair tactical advantage, and Defendants have articulated no persuasive grounds for finding they will be prejudiced by proceeding to trial on essentially the schedule they themselves very recently proposed, further disfavoring a stay. Plaintiffs would be prejudiced from a stay, given the possibility of additional trials and the consequent delay in achieving resolution of this litigation.”
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