Mekiki Co. Ltd. et al v. Facebook Inc.

Filing 53

JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE COURT'S REASSIGNMENT ORDER filed by Mekiki Co. Ltd., Mekiki Creates Co. Ltd.. (Mathews, Christopher) (Filed on 8/18/2010)

Mekiki Co. Ltd. et al v. Facebook Inc.

Doc. 53

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 MEKIKI CO., LTD and MEKIKI CREATES CO., LTD., 12 Plaintiffs and 13 Counter-Defendants, 14 15 16 17 18 19 Pursuant to the Court's Reassignment order of August 2, 2010 (D.I. 52), Plaintiffs and FACEBOOK, INC., Defendant and Counterclaimant. v. Case No. 5:10-cv-2721-LHK (HRL) UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN JOSE DIVISION

JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE COURT'S REASSIGNMENT ORDER

20 Counter-Defendants Mekiki Co., Ltd. and Mekiki Creates Co., Ltd. (collectively and hereinafter, 21 "Plaintiff" or "Mekiki") and Defendant and Counterclaimant Facebook, Inc. (hereinafter, 22 "Facebook"), submit the following joint report. 23 24 a. Date case was filed Plaintiff Mekiki filed a Complaint for patent infringement on October 7, 2009, in the

25 United States District Court for the District of Delaware as Case No. 1:09-cv-271. (D.I. 1.) The 26 case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on 27 June 21, 2010. (D.I. 39.) 28
MEKIKI CO., LTD ET AL. V. FACEBOOK, INC. CASE NO. 5:10-CV-2721-LHK (HRL) JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE REASSIGNMENT ORDER

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Dockets.Justia.com

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b. List or description of all parties Plaintiffs Mekiki Co., Ltd. and Mekiki Creates Co., Ltd. are corporations organized and

3 existing under the laws of Japan. (D.I. 1 (Complaint at ¶¶ 1-2).) Both corporations' principal 4 place of business is located at 3 Fl., Matsuoka Bldg., 1-17-8, Shibuya, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, Japan 5 150-0002. (Id.) 6 Defendant Facebook, Inc. is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in

7 Palo Alto, CA. (D.I. 6 (Counterclaims at ¶ 1).) 8 9 c. Summary of all claims, counter-claims, cross-claims, third party claims Plaintiff Mekiki filed its Complaint for patent infringement alleging that Defendant

10 Facebook infringes United States Patent Nos. 6,879,985 ("the '985 patent"), 7,493,342 ("the '342 11 patent") and 7,496,603 ("the '603 patent") (collectively the "Mekiki Patents") through its social 12 networking website www.facebook.com. (D.I. 1 (Complaint at ¶¶ 6, 10-13, 15).) 13 Defendant Facebook denies the allegations of Plaintiff's claim of patent infringement,

14 asserts various affirmative defenses against Plaintiff's claim, and asserts counterclaims seeking a 15 declaration of no infringement and that the patents-in-suit are invalidity and/or unenforceable. 16 (See generally D.I. 6.) 17 18 d. Brief description of the event underlying the action Plaintiff Mekiki alleges that Defendant Facebook infringes the Mekiki Patents. (D.I. 1

19 (Complaint at ¶¶ 6, 10-13, 15).) The Mekiki Patents all issued from the same U.S. patent 20 application, filed on October 17, 2001, and claim priority to a Japanese patent application filed on 21 October 17, 2000. (Id. (Complaint at ¶¶ 10-12, Ex. 1-3).) As such, each of the Mekiki Patents 22 shares the same patent specification, and are all entitled, "Human Relationships Registering 23 System, Method and Device For Registering Human Relationships, Program For Registering 24 Human Relationships, and Medium Storing Human Relationships Registering Program and 25 Readable by Computer." (Id.) Mekiki contends that Facebook's technologies utilize its patented 26 social networking intellectual property. (Id. ¶ 15.) 27 Defendant Facebook seeks an order of declaratory judgment that it does not infringe any
MEKIKI CO., LTD ET AL. V. FACEBOOK, INC. Case No. 5:10-cv-2721-LHK (HRL) JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE REASSIGNMENT ORDER

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e. Description of relief sought and damages claimed with an explanation as to how damages are computed Plaintiff Mekiki seeks (1) entry of judgment in favor of Mekiki finding that Facebook has

4 and continues to infringe the Mekiki Patents; and (2) an award of damages adequate to 5 compensate Mekiki for the infringement, together with prejudgment interest from the date 6 infringement began, but in no event less than a reasonable royalty as permitted by 35 U.S.C. §285. 7 (D.I. 1 (Complaint at p. 4).) 8 Defendant Facebook seeks a declaration that it does not infringe any claim of the patents-

9 in-suit and that any asserted claims of the patents-in-suit are invalid and/or unenforceable. (See 10 D.I. 6.) 11 12 f. Status of discovery (including any limits or cutoff dates) There has been no formal discovery taken in this case and the case was transferred before

13 any limits or deadlines for discovery were set. 14 15 16 17 g. Procedural history of the case including previous motions decided and/or submitted, ADR proceedings or settlement conferences scheduled or concluded, appellate proceedings pending or concluded, and any previous referral to a magistrate judge Plaintiff Mekiki filed its Complaint for patent infringement on October 7, 2009. (D.I. 1.)

18 Facebook filed its Answer to Mekiki's Complaint on December 28, 2009. (D.I. 6.) Mekiki filed 19 its Answer to Facebook's counterclaims on January 21, 2010. (D.I. 13.) The parties' Initial 20 Disclosures were exchanged on May 3, 2010. The case was transferred to the Northern District of 21 California on June 21, 2010 (D.I. 39), after the District of Delaware granted Facebook's motion to 22 transfer venue (D.I. 21-22), the only motion that has been filed in this case. The Initial Case 23 Management Conference has not yet taken place. 24 After the case was transferred to the Northern District of California, it was originally

25 assigned to Magistrate Judge Spero. (D.I. 40.) Facebook requested that the case be reassigned to 26 an Article III judge. (D.I. 44.) After initially being assigned to Judge Alsup (D.I. 47), the case 27 was subsequently reassigned to this Court. (D.I. 52.) All discovery matters have been assigned by 28 the Court to Magistrate Judge Lloyd.
MEKIKI CO., LTD ET AL. V. FACEBOOK, INC. Case No. 5:10-cv-2721-LHK (HRL) JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE REASSIGNMENT ORDER

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h. Other deadlines in place (before reassignment), including those for dispositive motions, pretrial conferences, and trials The only deadlines in place prior to the reassignment to this Court were set by Judge Alsup

4 as follows (D.I. 40, 49): 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 The Court vacated these deadlines upon reassignment, with the exception of the September Event(s) Last day to: · meet and confer regarding Initial Disclosures, early settlement, ADR process selection, and discovery plan; · file ADR Certification signed by the Parties and Counsel; · file either Stipulation to ADR Process or Notice of Need for ADR Phone Conference; Last day to file Rule 26(f) Report, complete Initial Disclosures or state objection in Rule 26(f) Report and file Case Management Statement Initial Case Management Conference September 30, 2010 September 24, 2010 Deadline September 10, 2010

23 10, 2010 ADR-related deadlines: meet and confer re ADR process selection (ADR L.R 3.5(a)), file 24 ADR Certification (Civil L.R. 16-8(b) & ADR L.R. 3-5(b)), and file either Stipulation to ADR 25 Process or Notice of Need for ADR Phone Conference (Civil L.R. 16-8(c) & ADR L.R. 3-5(b)26 (c)). (D.I. 52.) 27 28 i. Any requested modification of these dates and reason for the request
MEKIKI CO., LTD ET AL. V. FACEBOOK, INC. Case No. 5:10-cv-2721-LHK (HRL)

The parties do not request modification of the September 10, 2010 ADR-related deadlines. 4
JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE REASSIGNMENT ORDER

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j. Whether the parties will consent to a magistrate judge for trial The parties will not consent to a magistrate judge for trial in this case. k. If there exists an immediate need for a case management conference to be scheduled in the action. The parties await the Court's scheduling of the Initial Case Management Conference

6 pursuant to Civil L.R. 16-2. 7 8 9 Dated: August 18, 2010 10 11 QUINN EMANUEL 12 13 /s/ Chris Mathews Chris Mathews (Bar No. 144021) 14 Attorneys for Plaintiff and Counter-Defendants 15 MEKIKI CO., LTD and MEKIKI CREATES CO., LTD. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
MEKIKI CO., LTD ET AL. V. FACEBOOK, INC. Case No. 5:10-cv-2721-LHK (HRL) JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE REASSIGNMENT ORDER

COOLEY LLP

/s/ Heidi L. Keefe Heidi L. Keefe (178960) Attorneys for Defendant and Counterclaimant FACEBOOK, INC.

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