IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT 

COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT 

OF TEXAS MARSHALL DIVISION 

Civil Action No. 2:23-cv-00419-JRGRSP 

Jury Trial Requested 

DOCKET CONTROL ORDER 

Deadline Item 

May 19, 2025 *Jury Selection - 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas

7 days before 

Jury Selection

*Defendant to disclose final invalidity theories, final prior art

references/combinations, and final equitable defenses.1

10 days before 

Jury Selection

*Plaintiff to disclose final election of Asserted Claims.2

April 21, 2025 * If a juror questionnaire is to be used, an editable (in Microsoft

Word format) questionnaire shall be jointly submitted to the

Deputy Clerk in Charge by this date.3

April 14, 2025 *Pretrial Conference - 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas before

Judge Rodney Gilstrap

1 The proposed DCO shall include this specific deadline. The deadline shall read, "7 days 

before Jury Selection," and shall not include a specific date.

2 Given the Court's past experiences with litigants dropping claims and defenses during or on 

the eve of trial, the Court is of the opinion that these additional deadlines are necessary. The 

proposed DCO shall include this specific deadline. The deadline shall read, "10 days before 

Jury Selection," and shall not include a specific date.

3 The Parties are referred to the Court’s Standing Order Regarding Use of Juror Questionnaires 

in Advance of Voir Dire.

SYMBOLOGY INNOVATIONS, LLC 

Plaintiff, 

v.

VALVE CORPORATION, GEARBOX 

SOFTWARE, L.L.C. 

Defendants. 

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April 7, 2025 *Notify Court of Agreements Reached During Meet and Confer

The parties are ordered to meet and confer on any outstanding 

objections or motions in limine. The parties shall advise the Court of 

any agreements reached no later than 1:00 p.m. three (3) business 

days before the pretrial conference. 

April 7, 2025 *File Joint Pretrial Order, Joint Proposed Jury Instructions, Joint

Proposed Verdict Form, Responses to Motions in Limine, Updated

Exhibit Lists, Updated Witness Lists, and Updated Deposition

Designations

March 31, 2025 *File Notice of Request for Daily Transcript or Real Time Reporting.

If a daily transcript or real time reporting of court proceedings is 

requested for trial, the party or parties making said request shall file 

a notice with the Court and e-mail the Court Reporter, Shawn 

McRoberts, at shawn_mcroberts@txed.uscourts.gov. 

March 24, 2025 File Motions in Limine 

The parties shall limit their motions in limine to issues that if 

improperly introduced at trial would be so prejudicial that the Court 

could not alleviate the prejudice by giving appropriate instructions to 

the jury. 

March 24, 2025 Serve Objections to Rebuttal Pretrial Disclosures 

March 17, 2025 Serve Objections to Pretrial Disclosures; and Serve Rebuttal Pretrial 

Disclosures 

March 3, 2025 Serve Pretrial Disclosures (Witness List, Deposition Designations, 

and Exhibit List) by the Party with the Burden of Proof 

February 24, 2025 *Response to Dispositive Motions (including Daubert Motions).

Responses to dispositive motions that were filed prior to the

dispositive motion deadline, including Daubert Motions, shall be due

in accordance with Local Rule CV-7(e), not to exceed the deadline

as set forth in this Docket Control Order.4 Motions for Summary

Judgment shall comply with Local Rule CV-56.

4 The parties are directed to Local Rule CV-7(d), which provides in part that “[a] party's failure to 

oppose a motion in the manner prescribed herein creates a presumption that the party does not 

controvert the facts set out by movant and has no evidence to offer in opposition to the motion.” 

If the deadline under Local Rule CV 7(e) exceeds the deadline for Response to Dispositive 

Motions, the deadline for Response to Dispositive Motions controls. 

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February 10, 2025 *File Motions to Strike Expert Testimony (including

Daubert

Motions)

No motion to strike expert testimony (including a Daubert 

motion) may be filed after this date without leave of the Court.

February 10, 2025 *File Dispositive Motions

No dispositive motion may be filed after this date without leave 

of the Court.

Motions shall comply with Local Rule CV-56 and Local Rule CV7. Motions to extend page limits will only be granted in

exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances require

more than agreement among the parties.

February 3, 2025 Deadline to Complete Expert Discovery

January 21, 2025 Serve Disclosures for Rebuttal Expert Witnesses

December 30, 2024 Deadline to Complete Fact Discovery and File Motions to 

Compel Discovery

December 30, 2024 Serve Disclosures for Expert Witnesses by the Party with the 

Burden of Proof

December 5, 2024 Comply with P.R. 3-7 (Opinion of Counsel Defenses)

November 14, 2024 *Claim Construction Hearing- 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas

before Judge Rodney Gilstrap

October 31, 2024 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(d) (Joint Claim Construction Chart)

October 24, 2024 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(c) (Reply Claim Construction Brief)

October 17, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-5(b) (Responsive Claim Construction Brief) 

October 3, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-5(a) (Opening Claim Construction Brief) 

and Submit Technical Tutorials (if any)

Good cause must be shown to submit technical tutorials after 

the deadline to comply with P.R. 4-5(a).

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October 3, 2024 Deadline to Substantially Complete Document Production and 

Exchange Privilege Logs

Counsel are expected to make good faith efforts to produce all 

required documents as soon as they are available and not wait 

until the substantial completion deadline.

September 19, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-4 (Deadline to Complete Claim 

Construction Discovery)

September 12, 2024 File Response to Amended Pleadings

August 29, 2024 *File Amended Pleadings

It is not necessary to seek leave of Court to amend pleadings prior 

to this deadline unless the amendment seeks to assert additional 

patents. 

August 22, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-3 (Joint Claim Construction Statement) 

August 1, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-2 (Exchange Preliminary Claim 

Constructions)

July 11, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-1 (Exchange Proposed Claim Terms)

January 16, 2024 Comply with Standing Order Regarding Subject-Matter 

Eligibility Contentions5

January 16, 2024 Comply with P.R. 3-3 & 3-4 (Invalidity Contentions)

January 5, 2024 *File Proposed Protective Order and Comply with Paragraphs 1

& 3 of the Discovery Order (Initial and Additional Disclosures)

The Proposed Protective Order shall be filed as a separate 

motion with the caption indicating whether or not the proposed 

order is opposed in any part.

December 18, 2023 *File Proposed Docket Control Order and Proposed Discovery

Order

The Proposed Docket Control Order and Proposed Discovery 

Order shall be filed as separate motions with the caption 

indicating whether or not the proposed order is opposed in any 

part.

December 11, 2023 Join Additional Parties

5

 http://www. txed. uscourts. gov/ sites/ default/files/judgeF iles/EDTX%2 0 Standing%20Order%20 

Re%20Subject%20Matter%20Eligibility%20Contentions%20.pdf [https://perma.cc/RQN2-YU5P] 

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November 20, 2023 Comply with P.R. 3-1 & 3-2 (Infringement Contentions)

(*) indicates a deadline that cannot be changed without showing good cause. 

Good cause is not shown merely by indicating that the parties agree that the 

deadline should be changed. 

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS 

Mediation: While certain cases may benefit from mediation, such may not be appropriate 

for every case. The Court finds that the Parties are best suited to evaluate whether mediation will 

benefit the case after the issuance of the Court’s claim construction order. Accordingly, the Court 

ORDERS the Parties to file a Joint Notice indicating whether the case should be referred for 

mediation within fourteen days of the issuance of the Court’s claim construction order. As a 

part of such Joint Notice, the Parties should indicate whether they have a mutually agreeable 

mediator for the Court to consider. If the Parties disagree about whether mediation is appropriate, 

the Parties should set forth a brief statement of their competing positions in the Joint Notice. 

Summary Judgment Motions, Motions to Strike Expert Testimony, and Daubert 

Motions: For each motion, the moving party shall provide the Court with two (2) hard copies of 

the completed briefing (opening motion, response, reply, and if applicable, sur-reply), excluding 

exhibits, in D-three-ring binders, appropriately tabbed. All documents shall be single-sided and 

must include the CM/ECF header. These copies shall be delivered to the Court within three (3) 

business days after briefing has completed. For expert-related motions, complete digital copies of 

the relevant expert report(s) and accompanying exhibits shall be submitted on a single flash drive 

to the Court. Complete digital copies of the expert report(s) shall be delivered to the Court no later 

than the dispositive motion deadline. 

Indefiniteness: In lieu of early motions for summary judgment, the parties are directed to 

include any arguments related to the issue of indefiniteness in their Markman briefing, subject to 

the local rules’ normal page limits. 

Lead Counsel: The Parties are directed to Local Rule CV-11(a), which provides that “[o]n 

the first appearance through counsel, each party shall designate a lead attorney on the pleadings or 

otherwise.” Additionally, once designated, a party’s lead attorney may only be changed by the 

filing of a Motion to Change Lead Counsel and thereafter obtaining from the Court an Order 

granting leave to designate different lead counsel. 

Motions for Continuance: The following excuses will not warrant a continuance nor 

justify a failure to comply with the discovery deadline: 

(a) The fact that there are motions for summary judgment or motions to dismiss pending;

(b) The fact that one or more of the attorneys is set for trial in another court on the same day,

unless the other setting was made prior to the date of this order or was made as a special

provision for the parties in the other case;

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(c) The failure to complete discovery prior to trial, unless the parties can demonstrate that it

was impossible to complete discovery despite their good faith effort to do so.

Amendments to the Docket Control Order (“DCO”): Any motion to alter any date on

the DCO shall take the form of a motion to amend the DCO. The motion to amend the DCO shall 

include a proposed order that lists all of the remaining dates in one column (as above) and the 

proposed changes to each date in an additional adjacent column (if there is no change for a date 

the proposed date column should remain blank or indicate that it is unchanged). In other words, 

the DCO in the proposed order should be complete such that one can clearly see all the remaining 

deadlines and the changes, if any, to those deadlines, rather than needing to also refer to an earlier 

version of the DCO. 

.

____________________________________

RODNEY GILSTRAP

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE So ORDERED and SIGNED this 20th day of December, 2023.

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