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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

MARSHALL DIVISION

HEADWATER PARTNERS II LLC,

 Plaintiff, 

v. 

T-MOBILE US, INC. et al. and SPRINT 

CORP., 

 Defendants. 

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CIVIL ACTION NO. 2:24-cv-00015-JRG-RSP

(Lead Case)

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: 

Date Event

September 8, 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 11, 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 4, 2025 *Pretrial Conference – 9:00 a.m. in Marshall, Texas before 

Judge Roy Payne 

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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July 28, 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 21, 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 14, 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 Serve Objections to Rebuttal Pretrial Disclosures

July 7, 2025 Serve Objections to Pretrial Disclosures; and Serve Rebuttal 

Pretrial Disclosures

June 23, 2025 Serve Pretrial Disclosures (Witness List, Deposition 

Designations, and Exhibit List) by the Party with the Burden 

of Proof 

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June 2, 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.

May 27, 2025 Deadline to Complete Expert Discovery

May 12, 2025 Serve Disclosures for Rebuttal Expert Witnesses

April 21, 2025

Serve Disclosures for Expert Witnesses by the Party with the 

Burden of Proof

April 14, 2025 Deadline to Complete Fact Discovery and File Motions to 

Compel Discovery

March 28, 2025 Comply with P.R. 3-7 (Opinion of Counsel Defenses)

March 7, 2025 *Claim Construction Hearing – 9:00 a.m. in

Marshall, Texas before Judge Roy Payne

February 21, 2025 *Comply with P.R. 4-5(d) (Joint Claim 

Construction Chart)

February 21, 2025

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

Construction Brief)

February 12, 2025

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

Brief)

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January 24, 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 24, 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 10, 2025 Comply with P.R. 4-4 (Deadline to Complete Claim 

Construction Discovery) 

January 3, 2025 File Response to Amended Pleadings 

December 20, 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.

December 13, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-3 (Joint Claim Construction Statement)

November 22, 2024 Comply with P.R. 4-2 (Exchange Preliminary Claim 

Constructions) 

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

May 20, 2024 Comply with Standing Order Regarding Subject- Matter 

Eligibility Contentions4

May 20, 2024 Comply with P.R. 3-3 & 3-4 (Invalidity 

Contentions) 

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

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

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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 15, 2024 *File Proposed Discovery Order

The Proposed Discovery 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

The Proposed Docket Control Order shall be filed as a 

separate motion with the caption indicating whether or not 

the proposed order is opposed in any part.

April 1, 2024 Join Additional Parties

March 18, 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 

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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’).”

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 

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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. 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 pre-trial) 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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