Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc.

Filing 131

ORDER RE SCHEDULE FOR NARROWING ISSUES FOR TRIAL. Signed by Judge Alsup on May 3, 2011. (whalc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 5/3/2011)

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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ORACLE AMERICA, INC.,

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For the Northern District of California

United States District Court

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Plaintiff,
v.

ORDER RE SCHEDULE
FOR NARROWING
ISSUES FOR TRIAL

GOOGLE INC.,
Defendant.
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No. C 10-03561 WHA

Having reviewed the parties’ memoranda regarding the reexamination proceedings and the

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streamlining of this action, for which counsel are thanked, the Court proposes a three-step

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process, as below. Each side may file a five-page (double spaced, twelve-point Times New

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Roman font, no footnotes, and no attachments) critique of the tentative schedule by NOON ON

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MAY 6, 2011. After taking any critiques into account, the schedule will be finalized.

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Currently, there are 132 claims from seven patents asserted in this action, and there are

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hundreds of prior art references in play for invalidity defenses. This is too much. The following

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schedule will ensure that only a triable number of these items — three claims and eight prior art

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references — are placed before the jury in October, all others to be forsaken. Oracle will

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surrender all of its present infringement claims against Google based on the 129 asserted claims

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that will not be tried. Oracle may not renew those infringement claims in a subsequent action

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except as to new products.

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The first reduction will follow claim construction. Within SEVEN DAYS after the finalized

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claim construction order issues, Oracle shall narrow its patent infringement case to 40 asserted

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claims. Within SEVEN DAYS after that, Google shall narrow its invalidity case to 120 prior art

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references. It is anticipated that this first pair of reductions will be completed by the end of May.

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The second reduction will follow expert disclosures. By AUGUST 24 (five days after reply

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expert reports must be served), Oracle shall narrow its patent infringement case to 20 asserted

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claims. By AUGUST 29 (five days later), Google shall narrow its invalidity case to 60 prior art

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references. The parties will then have a week of expert discovery remaining, and another week

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before summary-judgment motions must be filed.
The third reduction will follow summary judgment. Between the date on which the

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For the Northern District of California

United States District Court

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summary-judgment order issues and the final pretrial conference, Oracle shall select no more than

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three asserted claims and Google shall select no more than eight prior art references for trial.

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All others will be forsaken. Counsel did not specify their understanding of a “triable number” of

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claims and prior art references, so the Court selected these figures based on its own views and

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experience. The exact dates for the final selections will be set in the summary-judgment order.

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Unless summary-judgment motions are filed early, the summary-judgment hearing will fall on

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October13. If that happens, then the final pretrial conference currently scheduled for October 17

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will be continued to October24 in order to allow time for this process.

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The trial remains set to begin on October 31. The parties, however, are requested to

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comment on the following. If our trial were postponed until after the inter partes reexaminations,

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to what extent would the results there possibly moot out the need for a trial here? When will the

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ex parte reexaminations be completed?

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IT IS SO ORDERED.

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Dated: May 3, 2011.

WILLIAM ALSUP
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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