IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

MARSHALL DIVISION

RICH MEDIA CLUB LLC, 

Plaintiff, 

vs. 

DMG MEDIA LIMITED,

Defendant. 

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Case No. No. 2:23-cv-388-JRG

DOCKET CONTROL ORDER 

In accordance with the scheduling conference held in this case, it is hereby ORDERED

that the following schedule of deadlines is in effect until further order of this Court:

July 7, 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

June 9, 2025 *If a juror questionnaire is to be used, an editable (in

Microsoft Word format) questionnaire shall be jointly

submitted by the Deputy Clerk in Charge by this date.3

June 2, 2025 *Pretrial Conference - 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas

before Judge Rodney Gilstrap

May 27, 2025 *Notify Court of Agreements Reached During Meet and

Confer

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. 

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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.

May 27, 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

May 19, 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.

May 12, 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. 

May 12, 2025 Serve Objections to Rebuttal Pretrial Disclosures

May 5, 2025 Serve Objections to Pretrial Disclosures; and Serve 

Rebuttal Pretrial Disclosures

April 21, 2025 Serve Pretrial Disclosures (Witness List, Deposition 

Designations, and Exhibit List) by the Party with the 

Burden of Proof 

April 14, 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

Case 2:23-cv-00388-JRG Document 30 Filed 04/19/24 Page 2 of 7 PageID #: 429
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this Docket Control Order.4 Motions for Summary 

Judgment shall comply with Local Rule CV-56. 

March 31, 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.

March 31, 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 CV-7. Motions to extend page limits will only be 

granted in exceptional circumstances. Exceptional

circumstances require more than agreement among the 

parties.

March 24, 2025 Deadline to Complete Expert Discovery

March 10, 2025 Serve Disclosures for Rebuttal Expert Witnesses

February 18, 2025 Serve Disclosures for Expert Witnesses by the Party with 

the Burden of Proof 

February 7, 2025 Deadline to Complete Fact Discovery and File Motions 

to Compel Discovery

February 7, 2025 Comply with P.R. 3-7 (Opinion of Counsel Defenses) 

January 17, 2025 *Claim Construction Hearing - 9:00 a.m. in Marshall,

Texas before Judge Rodney Gilstrap

January 3, 2025 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(d) (Joint Claim Construction

Chart)

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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December 27, 2024 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(c) (Reply Claim Construction

Brief)

December 20, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-5(b) (Responsive Claim 

Construction Brief)

December 6, 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).

December 6, 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.

November 22, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-4 (Deadline to Complete Claim 

Construction Discovery) 

November 15, 2024 File Response to Amended Pleadings

November 1, 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.

October 25, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-3 (Joint Claim Construction 

Statement)

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

Constructions) 

September 13, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-1 (Exchange Proposed Claim Terms) 

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May 6, 2024 Comply with Standing Order Regarding Subject-Matter 

Eligibility Contentions5

May 6, 2024 Comply with P.R. 3-3 & 3-4 (Invalidity Contentions) 

April 15, 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. 

April 8, 2024 *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. 

April 1, 2024 Join Additional Parties

March 11, 2024 Comply with P.R. 3-1 & 3-2 (Infringement Contentions)

(*) indicates a deadline that cannot be changed without an acceptable showing of 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 

5 http://www.txed.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/judgeFiles/EDTX%20Standing%20Order%20Re%20Subj 

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

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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)(1), 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. The true lead counsel should be 

designated early and should not expect to parachute in as lead once the case has been largely 

developed. 

Motions for Continuance: The following 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;

(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.

Proposed DCO: The Parties’ Proposed DCO should also follow the format described 

above under “Amendments to the Docket Control Order (‘DCO’).” 

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Joint Pretrial Order: In the contentions of the Parties included in the Joint Pretrial Order, 

the Plaintiff shall specify all allegedly infringed claims that will be asserted at trial. The Plaintiff 

shall also specify the nature of each theory of infringement, including under which subsections of 

35 U.S.C. § 271 it alleges infringement, and whether the Plaintiff alleges divided infringement or 

infringement under the doctrine of equivalents. Each Defendant shall indicate the nature of each 

theory of invalidity, including invalidity for anticipation, obviousness, subject-matter eligibility, 

written description, enablement, or any other basis for invalidity. The Defendant shall also specify 

each prior art reference or combination of references upon which the Defendant shall rely at trial, 

with respect to each theory of invalidity. Other than as set forth in the above deadlines, the 

contentions of the Parties may not be amended, supplemented, or dropped without leave of the 

Court based upon a showing of good cause. The Parties in a case which has been consolidated for 

pre-trial purposes and which is moving towards a separate trial on the merits (subsequent to pretrial) shall file, as an exhibit to the parties’ Joint Pretrial Order, a list identifying all docket entries 

from the lead case that relate to the applicable member case.

Trial: All parties must appear in person at trial. All non-individual (including but not 

limited to corporate) parties must appear at trial through the presence in person of a designated 

representative. Once they have appeared, any representative of a non-individual party shall not be 

replaced or substituted without express leave of Court.

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