EXHIBIT A

Case 2:23-cv-00611-JRG Document 23-1 Filed 04/15/24 Page 1 of 8 PageID #: 178
ACTIVE/128889803.2 

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

MARSHALL DIVISION

THE PHELAN GROUP, LLC,

Plaintiff,

v.

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE 

INSURANCE COMPANY, 

Defendant.

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CIVIL ACTION NO. 2:23-cv-611-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:

Event Current Date Proposed Date

*Jury Selection – 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas September 8, 2025

*Defendant to disclose final invalidity theories, 

final prior art references/combinations, and 

final equitable defenses with notice of the same 

filed with the Court. 1

7 days before Jury 

Selection

*Plaintiff to disclose final election of Asserted 

Claims with notice of the same filed with the 

Court.2

10 days before Jury 

Selection

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.

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* 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 11, 2025

*Pretrial Conference – 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, 

Texas before Judge Rodney Gilstrap

August 4, 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.

July 28, 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.

July 28, 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 21, 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 14, 2025

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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Serve Objections to Rebuttal Pretrial 

Disclosures

July 14, 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 23, 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 CV7(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.

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 2, 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. 

June 2, 2025

Deadline to Complete Expert Discovery May 27, 2025

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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Serve Disclosures for Rebuttal Expert 

Witnesses

May 12, 2025

Deadline to Complete Fact Discovery and File 

Motions to Compel Discovery

April 21, 2025 April 7, 2025

Serve Disclosures for Expert Witnesses by the 

Party with the Burden of Proof

April 21, 2025

Comply with P.R. 3-7 (Opinion of Counsel 

Defenses)

March 31, 2025

*Claim Construction Hearing – 9:00 a.m. in 

Marshall, Texas before Judge Rodney Gilstrap

March 10, 2025

*Comply with P.R. 4-5(d) (Joint Claim 

Construction Chart)

February 24, 2025

*Comply with P.R. 4-5(c) (Reply Claim 

Construction Brief)

February 18, 2025

Deadline to Exchange Privilege Logs January 27, 2025 February 17, 2025

Comply with P.R. 4-5(b) (Responsive Claim 

Construction Brief)

February 10, 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). 

January 27, 2025

Deadline to Substantially Complete Document 

Production 

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 27, 2025

Comply with P.R. 4-4 (Deadline to Complete 

Claim Construction Discovery)

January 13, 2025

File Response to Amended Pleadings January 6, 2025

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*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.

December 23, 2024

Comply with P.R. 4-3 (Joint Claim 

Construction Statement)

December 16, 2024

Comply with P.R. 4-2 (Exchange Preliminary 

Claim Constructions)

November 25, 2024

Comply with P.R. 4-1 (Exchange Proposed 

Claim Terms)

November 4, 2024

Comply with Standing Order Regarding 

Subject-Matter Eligibility Contentions5

May 6, 2024

Comply with P.R. 3-3 & 3-4 (Invalidity 

Contentions)

May 20, 2024

File Proposed ESI Order April 29, 2024

*File Proposed Protective Order

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 15, 2024 April 29, 2024

*Comply with Paragraphs 1 & 3 of the 

Discovery Order (Initial and Additional 

Disclosures)

April 15, 2024

5

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

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

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*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 8, 2024 April 15, 2024

Join Additional Parties April 1, 2024

Comply with P.R. 3-1 & 3-2 (Infringement 

Contentions)

March 25, 2024

(*) 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-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 

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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’).” 

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. 

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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