Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. Acer Inc. et al

Filing 85

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER. Signed by Judge Rodney Gilstrap on 07/11/2014. (nkl, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
MARSHALL DIVISION

INNOVATIVE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES §
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LLC
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Plaintiff,
v.
ACER INC. ET AL.,
Defendants.

Civil Action No. 2:13-cv-00522-JRG
LEAD CASE

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Before the Court are Defendants Acer Inc., Acer America Corporation, Dell Inc.,
Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei Investment and Holding Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co.,
Ltd., Huawei Device USA Inc., BlackBerry Corporation, BlackBerry Limited, and Microsoft
Corporation’s (collectively, “Defendants”) Motion to Strike Expert Declaration in support of
Plaintiff’s Claim Construction Brief. (See Dkt. No. 72.) Having considered the parties’ written
submissions, the Court GRANTS the motion.
On May 5, 2014, Plaintiff and Defendants filed their Patent Rule 4-3 Joint Claim
Construction and Prehearing Statement. (Dkt. No. 61.) Neither side identified any experts, any
claim terms for which expert testimony would be offered, or indicated that it intended to rely on a
sworn expert declaration. Under the subject of expert opinion, Plaintiff stated that it did not
intend to call any expert at the claim construction hearing but reserved the right to call a rebuttal
expert if Defendants provided one. (See Dkt. No. 61 at 89.) On June 16, 2014, Plaintiff filed its

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Opening Claim Construction Brief, attaching, however, an expert declaration to the brief. (See
Dkt. No. 69-2.) Mr. Werner, the expert, made his declaration solely regarding the issue of
indefiniteness. (See id.) Neither the identity of Mr. Werner nor the subject of his declaration had
been disclosed to Defendants before the filing of Plaintiff’s opening claim construction brief. On
June 20, 2014, during the parties’ meet-and-confer of the instant motion, Plaintiff suggested that
Defendants should file their own declaration rather than moving to strike that of Plaintiff’s. On
June 24, 2014, Defendants moved to strike Mr. Werner’s declaration. Defendants subsequently
filed their Responsive Claim Construction Brief without the support of an expert declaration on
June 30, 2014. (See Dkt. No. 75.)
Plaintiff does not dispute that, under Patent Rule 4-3 and this Court’s precedent, a party
who intends to rely on a sworn expert declaration must “clearly indicate” in the joint claim
construction statement that “it intends to rely on a sworn declaration; identify the declarant; and
identify the precise disputed claim terms which will be addressed thereby.” (Memorandum
Opinion and Order, Lodsys v. Brother Int’l Co., et al., No. 2:11-cv-0090 (E.D. Tex. Mar. 12,
2013), ECF No. 573.) The party’s failure to comply with such disclosure requirement precludes it
from later relying on any sworn declaration in its claim construction brief.

Id.

Further

undisputed here is that Plaintiff has failed to satisfy this disclosure requirement under Patent Rule
4-3. Neither the identity of Mr. Werner nor the subject of his declaration had been disclosed to
Defendants before the filing of Plaintiff’s opening claim construction brief. Plaintiff argues that
this Court should nonetheless allow the addition of Mr. Werner’s declaration because issuance of
the recent Supreme Court Nautilus decision constitutes a “special circumstance” justifying such
addition. See Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2120, 2122 (2014).
The parties dispute from the outset whether or not Nautilus has substantially changed the

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way patent litigants are to present their indefiniteness argument to the court. Specifically,
whether Nautilus makes it necessary for a party to rely on expert witnesses in proving
indefiniteness. The Court, however, need not resolve such dispute at this time. It suffices to note
that the burden to prove indefiniteness lies with the party challenging the validity of the patent, in
this case, the Defendants. Here, Defendants have elected not to rely on expert witnesses on this
issue. Indeed, in its response to the instant motion, Plaintiff repeatedly admitted that Mr.
Werner’s declaration is “neither necessary nor required from [Plaintiff],” and that it “may not be as
useful to the Court…as [Plaintiff] had anticipated.” (See, e.g., Dkt. No. 80 at 7.) Therefore,
Plaintiff’s purported justification for this Court to overlook its own precedent and allow Mr.
Werner’s declaration is unpersuasive.
Moreover, Nautilus came out on June 2, 2014, two weeks before Plaintiff filed its opening
claim construction brief. During those two weeks, Plaintiff could have sought leave from the
Court to submit an expert declaration or at least informed Defendants of its intention to rely on such
declaration. Plaintiff did neither. Instead, it chose to remain silent for two weeks while working
on its expert declaration, and only reveal, for the first time, such additional evidence in its opening
claim construction brief. While Plaintiff did eventually offer Defendants an opportunity to attach
their own expert declaration, such offer came in the middle of the two weeks that Defendants
needed to prepare their responsive claim construction brief. Even assuming that Nautilus had
provided Plaintiff a reason to submit an additional expert declaration, given the complete lack of
prior disclosure on Plaintiff’s side (and its failure to offer a remedial measure in good faith) the
Court finds that Defendants will be unduly prejudiced if the Court allows Plaintiff to rely on Mr.
Werner’s declaration. This is especially so in light of the impending Claim Construction
hearing scheduled on July 28, 2014.

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For the reasons stated above, the Court hereby GRANTS Defendants’ Motion to Strike
Expert Declaration in Support of Plaintiff’s Claim Construction Brief (Dkt. No. 72.)

Mr.

Werner’s declaration is hereby STRICKEN from the record. (Dkt. No. 69-2.)
SIGNED this 19th day of December, 2011.
So ORDERED and SIGNED this 11th day of July, 2014.

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RODNEY GILSTRAP
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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