Judge Mazzant granted the plaintiff’s motion for civil contempt due to the defendant’s violations of the permanent injunction in this case based on infringing guitars, but declined to consider the arguments raised for the first time in the reply brief (helpfully noting that the plaintiff should “feel free to file a new motion for civil contempt” as to those issues).
Plaintiff sought default judgment as a sanction for the defendant’s failure to timely provide discovery responses. In an order that goes through when failure to comply with discovery obligations warrants sanctions, the court found that a “death penalty” sanction was not warranted in this case since the late compliance was not willful, and the plaintiff was not substantially prejudice by the late responses.
The court granted the defendant’s motion for exceptional case. It denied the motion for sanctions, and trimmed the post-dismissal part of the fees, eventually awarding $92,130.35.
The defendant sought enforcement of the court’s order on the bill of costs. Judge Gilstrap denied the motion, concluding that it wasn’t the right mechanism to enforce the order.
This case is only tangentially IP, but terminating sanctions are so rare that it’s a useful example of when conduct in discovery is so extreme that it justifies striking a party’s answer and entering default judgment.
Judge Payne denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim or in the alternative for a more definite statement, holding that the arguments required a particular claim construction that is not apparent from the pleadings record. He also denied the motion for Rule 11 sanctions, noting that it relied on the same claim construction arguments.
“Throughout this litigation, to label [defendant] as troublesome would be an understatement” is not a good way to start an opinion.
Judge Eskridge denied the request to amend, and … pretty much everything else the plaintiff asked for in this trademark case.
Desbenoit, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Plaintiff sought “Corrective Actions and Sanctions for Violation of Protective Order and Abuse Of Settlement Process”.
The refiling of a case after a voluntary dismissal and an ITC ruling was the crux of the defendant’s motion.
