Thought, Inc. v. Oracle Corporation et al

Filing 126

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT INVALIDITY CONTENTIONS by Hon. William H. Orrick re 114 Motion. (jmdS, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 12/3/2014)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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THOUGHT, INC.,

Case No. 12-cv-05601-WHO

Plaintiff,
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v.
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ORACLE CORPORATION, et al.,
Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO
SUPPLEMENT INVALIDITY
CONTENTIONS
Re: Dkt. No. 114

United States District Court
Northern District of California

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Currently before the Court is Oracle’s motion for leave to amend its invalidity contentions

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to include as prior art references two early versions of Thought’s own product: CocoBase 3.1 and

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4.0. Thought does not contend it will suffer prejudice from the supplementation and indeed it

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could not suffer prejudice because the prior art references are its own product. Instead, Thought

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argues that Oracle has not been diligent in seeking to supplement, asserting that the issue of

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transparent persistence (to which the new prior art references are material) has been in this case

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since its inception and should have been included in Oracle’s initial prior art searches. Oracle

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disagrees, specifically referring to documents that it alleges should have been but were not

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produced earlier and Thought’s allegedly incomplete response to an interrogatory.

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I GRANT Oracle’s motion for leave to amend invalidity contentions to assert the two

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releases of Thought’s CocoBase software, CocoBase 3.1 and 4.0, in place of other prior art. Given

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both sides’ shifting proposals on how to define transparent persistence, Thought’s arguable failure

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to provide a full interrogatory response covering CocoBase 3.1 and 4.0, and the lack of any

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prejudice to Thought, supplementation is appropriate.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: December 3, 2014
______________________________________
WILLIAM H. ORRICK
United States District Judge

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United States District Court
Northern District of California

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