Proposed Local Patent Rules Submitted to the EDVA Judges
As detailed in an earlier blog post found here, a group of intellectual property attorneys from around the Eastern District, including myself, Robert Angle, Maya Eckstein, Dave Finkelson, Dana McDaniel, Chip Molster, Steve Noona and Bob Barrett, have been working over the past several months to draft a local patent rule and model patent pretrial schedule and pretrial order to use in patent cases in the Eastern District of Virginia.
A draft of a proposed local rule was circulated to several statewide intellectual property bar groups, and comments were received from practicioners in all parts of the district. The comments were considered and many were adopted, and a revised proposed local rule, model scheduling order and model pretrial order have been submitted to Chief Judge Spencer. The judges will consider the proposal at their district-wide meeting, which occurs in October. The revised rule can be found here, and an executive summary of the rule is here.
As we’ve said before, the judges of the EDVA will obviously decide on their own whether to adopt any proposed changes to their Local Rules. That said, the support of practitioners and interested bar organizations cannot hurt and may well help. If you believe the proposed rules make sense, please express your support to the EDVA judges. If you have other comments, submit them on this blog, and we will pass them on to the judges.
