September 25, 2024
Delaware's top federal judge won't budge on ordering a Texas paralegal to pony up $53,000 for refusing to appear for months to answer questions about a patent litigation outfit that was registered to her name, after he grilled her lawyer over who he was representing at a hearing she did show up to last week.
August 23, 2024
Delaware's top federal judge Friday ordered a Texas-based patent litigation business owner to appear before him to address what he called a "potential fraud on the court" and "misconduct" by the firm's counsel, adding she'll have to pay $53,000 in accrued sanctions for refusing to show up in-person since last year.
October 03, 2023
Delaware's top federal judge on Tuesday refused a request to hold off on a $200-per-day fine against a recently widowed Texas paralegal who doesn't want to fly to Wilmington to answer any more questions in patent infringement litigation, saying it was unlikely the Federal Circuit would do anything to strip his authority to order owners of patent companies to testify in front of him.
August 31, 2023
The owner of a Texas patent company in the crosshairs of Delaware's top judge is asking him to lay off on sanctions until she has a chance to take his contempt finding up with a federal appeals court, arguing that fining her an estimated $36,000 would be "particularly onerous" because her husband, who got her into the patent licensing game, had died earlier in August.
August 01, 2023
A Delaware federal judge who repeatedly ordered two Texas-based patent owners to appear in person to answer his questions about possible "fraud on the court" adjourned a contempt hearing within 10 minutes Tuesday after neither party showed up.
July 28, 2023
The named owners of two companies that file patent lawsuits say they won't show up to a contempt hearing on Tuesday in front of the top judge in Delaware federal court, who they are now asking to stand down from his investigation into who is funding their operations, complaining on Friday that "no one could see this and consider it to be a fair hearing."
July 20, 2023
A federal judge in Delaware moved the stakes up a notch Thursday in a monthslong dispute over concerns that two patent enforcement company owners with cases before him are defrauding the court and refusing to appear, setting a "show cause" contempt hearing for Aug. 1.
July 19, 2023
The Federal Circuit will be reviewing its first en banc patent case since 2018, while the court's members are being sued by its longest-serving judge, who claims that an attempt to oust her is unconstitutional. Here's what you need to know about these and other high-profile patent cases.
July 13, 2023
A Texas limited liability company that ended up under judicial scrutiny after it sued several companies in Delaware for patent infringement has objected to what it calls "the Judicial Inquisition initiated and conducted by the Court" and says it will no longer participate.
July 10, 2023
A Delaware federal judge is demanding a patent business owner appear in court next week amid an ongoing probe into potential fraud, saying his staff's online research shows that travel to the First State will not cause "a substantial financial hardship."