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Court Holds ResQNet Does Not Require Admission of License Agreements Arising Out of Litigation

By Michael C. Smith

Fenner v. HP, 6:08-cv-00273-JDL (April 28, 2010)

Judge: John Love

Holding: Plaintiff's Motion in Limine to Preclude Testimony Regarding Prior Litigation GRANTED-IN-PART

This afternoon I noted that Judge Love was getting ready to try a Fenner case next week in Tyler.  Today Judge Love issued an order in the case that addresses in detail a red-hot issue in many patent cases - the extent to which the Federal Circuit's statement in ResQNet.com, Inc. v. Lansa, Inc., 594 F.3d 860 (Fed. Cir. 2010) that license agreements arising out of litigation may be the ?most reliable? evidence of a reasonable royalty has changed the district's prior caselaw that such agreements are not admissible.  Judge Love concluded that ResQNet had not altered the admissibility of agreements entered into under the threat of litigation, concluding that it was distinguishable from the fact situation presented in a jury trial, and declined to admit the agreements in the case before him.

In recent weeks Judges Ward, Everingham and Folsom have all addressed this issue (the latter multiple times before and during the DataTreasury trial, and I have seen it in another limine order since that case), and as their respective treatments avoid the sin of excessive similarity, this order is another useful data point for Eastern District practitioners interested in this issue.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on April 28, 2010 (boomark / email).