By Kevin E. Noonan —

District Court Judge James C. Cacheris of the Eastern District of Virginia is set to hear argument tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. (EST) on cross motions for summary judgment in Tafas/GSK v. Dudas.  Judge Cacheris, who enjoined implementation of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s ill-conceived and misguided rules limiting continuation practice and the number of claims that can be filed in an application (the “new rules”) on October 31, 2007, will hear the parties argue their positions, and it is suspected will issue his ruling from the bench.  John White from PLI will be sending updates on the hearing from the PLI Patent Blog and Patent Docs will be providing commentary throughout the day.

Each party has argued that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, and their positions are set forth in their briefs (see GSK SJ Brief, Tafas SJ Brief, PTO SJ Brief, GSK Opposition, Tafas Opposition, PTO Opposition 1, PTO Opposition 2, GSK Reply, Tafas Reply, and PTO Reply).  In addition, the Court has had the benefit of numerous amicus briefs, the overwhelming majority of them supporting the plaintiffs.  Amici include:

Intellectual Property Owners, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Washington Legal Foundation, PA Bioadvance, Ecolab Inc., General Mills, Inc., Donaldson Co., Anchor Walls Systems, Inc., Valspar Corp., AmberWaves Systems, Inc., Fallbrook Technologies, Inc., InterDigital Communications LLC, Nano-Terra Inc., Tessera Inc., CFPH LLC, American Intellectual Property Association, Intellectual Property Institute, William Mitchell College of Law, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Polestar Capital Associates, LLC, and The Norseman Group LLC.

For information regarding this and other related topics, please see:

• "New Briefing Deadline Set In PTO Rules Case," December 18, 2007
• "Court Sets Summary Judgment Schedule in New Rules Case," December 3, 2007
• "No Discovery in New Rules Case," November 27, 2007
• "Tafas v. Dudas; SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Dudas (E.D. Va. 2007)," October 31, 2007
• "USPTO Late to Its Own Party," October 31, 2007
• "GSK Secures Injunction," October 31, 2007 (includes links to Court’s Order and Opinion)
• "Senator Schumer Sends a Signal," October 30, 2007
• "GSK TRO/Preliminary Injunction Hearing," October 29, 2007
• "AIPLA Supports GSK’s Lawsuit Against the Patent Office’s New Rules," October 25, 2007
• "GSK Brings Out the Big Guns Opposing the New Continuation and Claims Rules," October 24, 2007
• "Hooray! – (Finally) the Big Dogs Have Joined the Hunt," October 11, 2007
• "Rules Challenger Amends Complaint and Withdraws PI Motion," September 11, 2007
• "Inventor Sues PTO to Prevent New Continuation and Claims Rules from Taking Effect," August 30, 2007