UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

MARSHALL DIVISION

CROGA INNOVATIONS LTD.,

v.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES

CORPORATION,

Case No. 2:23-cv-00634-JRG

JURY TRIAL DEMANDED

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:

September 22, 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

August 25, 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

August 18, 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.

Case 2:23-cv-00634-JRG Document 17-1 Filed 04/08/24 Page 1 of 6 PageID #: 195
August 11, 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.

August 11, 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

August 4, 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.

July 28, 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.

July 28, 2025 Serve Objections to Rebuttal Pretrial Disclosures

July 21, 2025 Serve Objections to Pretrial Disclosures; and Serve Rebuttal Pretrial 

Disclosures

July 7, 2025 Serve Pretrial Disclosures (Witness List, Deposition Designations, and 

Exhibit List) by the Party with the Burden of Proof

June 30, 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."

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June 16, 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.

June 16, 2025 *File Dispositive Motions

No dispositive motion may be filed after this date without leave of the 

Court. 5

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.

June 9, 2025 Deadline to Complete Expert Discovery

May 27, 2025 Serve Disclosures for Rebuttal Expert Witnesses

April 25, 2025 Deadline to Complete Fact Discovery and File Motions to Compel 

Discovery

May 5, 2025 Serve Disclosures for Expert Witnesses by the Party with the Burden of 

Proof

April 1, 2025 Comply with P.R. 3-7 (Opinion of Counsel Defenses)

March 11, 2025 *Claim Construction Hearing-9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas before 

Judge Rodney Gilstrap

February 25, 2025 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(d) (Joint Claim Construction Chart)

February 18, 2025 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(c) (Reply Claim Construction Brief)

February 11, 2025 Comply with P.R. 4-5(b) (Responsive Claim Construction Brief)

January 28, 2025 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).

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

the deadline for Response to Dispositive Motion controls.

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January 28, 2025 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.

January 14, 2025 Comply with P.R. 4-4 (Deadline to Complete Claim Construction 

Discovery)

January 7, 2025 File Response to Amended Pleadings

December 24, 2024 *File Amended Pleadings

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

deadline unlessthe amendmentseeksto assert additional patents.

December 17, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-3 (Joint Claim Construction Statement)

November 26, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-2 (Exchange Preliminary Claim Constructions)

November 5, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-1 (Exchange Proposed Claim Terms)

May 16, 2024 Comply with Standing Order Regarding Subject-Matter Eligibility 

Contentions6

May 16, 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

6

http://www.txed.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/judgeFiles/EDTX%20Standing%200rder%20 

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

YU5P]

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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 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-1 l(a)(l), 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;

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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.

Proposed DCO: The Parties' Proposed DCO should also follow the format described above under 

"Amendments to the Docket Control Order ('DCO')."

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. The 

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

based upon a showing of good cause.

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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