IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

MARSHALL DIVISION

COBBLESTONE WIRELESS, LLC

 v.

CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

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Case No. 2:23-CV-0454-JRG-RSP

LEAD CASE

DISCOVERY ORDER 

After a review of the pleaded claims and defenses in this action, in furtherance of the 

management of the Court’s docket under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16, and after receiving 

the input of the parties to this action, it is ORDERED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Initial Disclosures. In lieu of the disclosures required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 

26(a)(1), each party shall disclose to every other party the following information:

(a) the correct names of the parties to the lawsuit;

(b) the name, address, and telephone number of any potential parties;

(c) the legal theories and, in general, the factual bases of the disclosing party’s claims 

or defenses (the disclosing party need not marshal all evidence that may be offered 

at trial);

(d) the name, address, and telephone number of persons having knowledge of relevant 

facts, a brief statement of each identified person’s connection with the case, and a 

brief, fair summary of the substance of the information known by any such person;

(e) any indemnity and insuring agreements under which any person or entity carrying 

on an insurance business may be liable to satisfy part or all of a judgment entered 

in this action or to indemnify or reimburse for payments made to satisfy the 

judgment;

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(f) any settlement agreements relevant to the subject matter of this action; and

(g) any statement of any party to the litigation.

2. Disclosure of Expert Testimony.1 A party must disclose to the other parties the identity 

of any witness it may use at trial to present evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, 

703 or 705, and:

(a) if the witness is one retained or specially employed to provide expert testimony in 

the case or one whose duties as the party’s employee regularly involve giving expert 

testimony, provide the disclosures required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 

26(a)(2)(B) and Local Rule CV-26; and

(b) for all other such witnesses, provide the disclosure required by Federal Rule of Civil 

Procedure 26(a)(2)(C).

3. Additional Disclosures. Without awaiting a discovery request,2 each party will make the 

following disclosures to every other party:

(a) provide the disclosures required by the Patent Rules for the Eastern District of 

Texas with the following modifications to P.R. 3-1 and P.R. 3-3:

i. If a party claiming patent infringement asserts that a claim element is a 

software limitation, the party need not comply with P.R. 3-1 for those claim 

elements until 30 days after source code for each Accused Instrumentality 

is produced by the opposing party. Thereafter, the party claiming patent 

infringement shall identify, on an element-by-element basis for each 

1 All expert reports should be written such that the report is organized with discrete 

paragraph numbers.

2 The Court anticipates that this disclosure requirement will obviate the need for requests 

for production.

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asserted claim, what source code of each Accused Instrumentality allegedly 

satisfies the software limitations of the asserted claim elements.

ii. If a party claiming patent infringement exercises the provisions of 

Paragraph 3(a)(i) of this Discovery Order, the party opposing a claim of 

patent infringement may serve, not later than 30 days after receipt of a 

Paragraph 3(a)(i) disclosure, supplemental “Invalidity Contentions” that 

amend only those claim elements identified as software limitations by the 

party claiming patent infringement.

(b) produce or permit the inspection of all documents, electronically stored 

information, and tangible things in the possession, custody, or control of the party 

that are relevant to the pleaded claims or defenses involved in this action, except to 

the extent these disclosures are affected by the time limits set forth in the Patent 

Rules for the Eastern District of Texas; and

(c) provide a complete computation of any category of damages claimed by any party 

to the action, and produce or permit the inspection of documents or other 

evidentiary material on which such computation is based, including materials 

bearing on the nature and extent of injuries suffered, except that the disclosure of 

the computation of damages may be deferred until the time for Expert Disclosures 

if a party will rely on a damages expert.

4. Protective Orders. The Court will enter the parties’ Agreed Protective Order.

5. Discovery Limitations. The discovery in this cause is limited to the disclosures described 

in Paragraphs 1-3 together with: 

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(a) Interrogatories: Plaintiff may not serve more than 30 common interrogatories 

on Defendants Side (as defined below), collectively, and 10 individual 

interrogatories on each Defendant Group (as defined below). Defendants Side 

may not serve more than 30 common interrogatories on Plaintiff, collectively, 

and each Defendant Group may not serve more than 10 individual 

interrogatories on Plaintiff.

(b) Requests for Admissions: No Defendant Group, nor Plaintiff, shall serve more 

than 40 Requests for Admission (RFAs) on substantive issues. RFAs directed 

to authenticity, admissibility, or status of a document as prior art do not count 

against the RFA limit.

(c) Deposition Notices: Deposition discovery may commence at any time. 

However, before depositions of the Parties commence, each side (as defined 

below) will serve their Rule 30(b)(6) notice(s) in an effort to avoid either side 

having to reproduce any fact witnesses as a corporate designee. Witnesses shall 

not be recalled absent good cause. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this shall not 

preclude a party from serving a supplemental Rule 30(b)(6) notice(s) that is 

limited to topics that could not have been anticipated at the time the initial 

notice was served.

(d) Depositions of party fact witnesses:

• Each Defendant Group shall be subject to a maximum of 55 hours of 

depositions of party fact witnesses. 

• Plaintiff shall be subject to a maximum of 55 hours of deposition. To reduce 

redundancy and inconvenience to the Parties, the Defendants may coordinate 

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and allocate those hours to subjects common to all Defendants and to testimony 

that is specific to each Defendant Group. If Plaintiff designates only one or two 

witnesses as its 30(b)(6) witnesses who are also noticed as 30(b)(1) witnesses, 

each Defendant Group shall be allowed up to 7 hours with each witness. 

Likewise, if an inventor is also a 30(b)(6) witness, each Defendant Group shall 

be allowed up to an additional 3 hours with that inventor.

• Regardless of the actual length of record time, for any witness a party chooses 

to depose who is not designated as a 30(b)(6) witness, each deposition shall 

count for a minimum of 3.5 hours of record time.

• Party fact witnesses include a party’s corporate designees under FRCP 

30(b)(6) and a party’s directors, officers, employees, agents, and 

representatives deposed in their individual capacity under FRCP 30(b)(1). The 

Parties shall endeavor to depose any party fact witnesses within one day, except 

for reasons set forth above.

• Each party reserves the right to seek an adjustment of these time limits based 

upon changes to the scope of discovery, the number of witnesses identified in 

initial disclosures, or the addition or dismissal of any Parties, in this case. These 

provisions, further, may be amended by agreement of the Parties.

The above cumulative limits on deposition time do not constitute any agreements 

by the Parties that an opposing Party is entitled to take its maximum hours of testimony 

from them; nor does this cumulative limit alter the limitation on each deposition’s duration 

specified under the Federal Rules. 

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(e) Third-party Depositions: Third-party depositions shall be subject to the 7-

hour duration limits specified under the Federal Rules. Each side may take a 

total of 56 hours of third-party depositions (excluding expert depositions).

(f) Expert Depositions: The Parties shall meet and confer in advance of each 

expert deposition to determine the appropriate number of hours of deposition 

per expert, but generally, no single expert will be deposed for more than 7 hours 

total per report. The Parties will meet and confer in the event that a Party feels 

that more than 7 hours is needed for the deposition of any expert. 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, if an expert offers [non]infringement or 

damages opinions in a single report for or against more than one Defendant 

Group, that expert may be deposed for an additional 3 hours for each additional 

Defendant Group for which they offer opinions (e.g., if an expert offers 

infringement opinions for both the Cisco and HPE Defendant Groups, they may 

be deposed for 10 hours. If any party serves a supplemental expert report, the 

Parties will meet and confer on whether any deposition is needed and if so, what 

the duration of the deposition should be.

(g) FRCP 30(a)(2)(i). The parties do not need to obtain leave of Court under 

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(a)(2)(A)(i) to take a deposition in 

accordance with the above deposition limits in subparts (d)-(h) even if a 

deposition would result in more than 10 depositions being taken under that rule 

or Rule 31.

(h) Translated depositions: For any deposition that requires translation between 

English and any foreign language, the time limits set forth above shall be 

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doubled, wherein if an entire deposition is translated, the taking party is entitled 

to 14 hours of deposition time of which 7 hours shall count towards the 

deposition limits established in this Order. In no event however shall a witness 

be required to testify for more than 7 hours of actual deposition time during any 

single day unless otherwise stipulated or ordered.

(i) Definitions: “Side” means a party or a group of parties with a common interest, 

i.e., Defendants comprise one side and the Plaintiff comprises the other side. A 

“Defendant Group” is the group of commonly accused Defendants identified in 

a single complaint, i.e., the HPE Defendant Group is Hewlett Packard 

Enterprise Company and Aruba Networks, LLC. The Cisco Defendant Group 

is Cisco Systems, Inc. 

Any party may later move to modify these limitations for a good cause. 

6. Privileged Information. There is no duty to disclose privileged documents or 

information. However, the parties are directed to meet and confer concerning privileged 

documents or information after the Status Conference. By the deadline set in the Docket 

Control Order, the parties shall exchange privilege logs identifying the documents or 

information and the basis for any disputed claim of privilege in a manner that, without 

revealing information itself privileged or protected, will enable the other parties to assess 

the applicability of the privilege or protection. Any party may move the Court for an order 

compelling the production of any documents or information identified on any other party’s 

privilege log. If such a motion is made, the party asserting privilege shall respond to the 

motion within the time period provided by Local Rule CV-7. The party asserting privilege 

shall then file with the Court within 30 days of the filing of the motion to compel any proof 

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in the form of declarations or affidavits to support their assertions of privilege, along with 

the documents over which privilege is asserted for in camera inspection. However, if the 

party asserting privilege seeks an in camera review by the Court, such party shall first 

obtain leave from the Court prior to delivery of documents to the Court.

7. Signature. The disclosures required by this Order shall be made in writing and signed by 

the party or counsel and shall constitute a certification that, to the best of the signer’s 

knowledge, information and belief, such disclosure is complete and correct as of the time 

it is made. If feasible, counsel shall meet to exchange disclosures required by this Order; 

otherwise, such disclosures shall be served as provided by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 

5. The parties shall promptly file a notice with the Court that the disclosures required under 

this Order have taken place.

8. Duty to Supplement. After disclosure is made pursuant to this Order, each party is under 

a duty to supplement or correct its disclosures immediately if the party obtains information 

on the basis of which it knows that the information disclosed was either incomplete or 

incorrect when made, or is no longer complete or true.

9. Discovery Disputes.

(a) Except in cases involving claims of privilege, any party entitled to receive 

disclosures (“Requesting Party”) may, after the deadline for making disclosures, 

serve upon a party required to make disclosures (“Responding Party”) a written 

statement, in letter form or otherwise, of any reason why the Requesting Party 

believes that the Responding Party’s disclosures are insufficient. The written 

statement shall list, by category, the items the Requesting Party contends should be 

produced. The parties shall promptly meet and confer. If the parties are unable to 

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resolve their dispute, then the Responding Party shall, within 14 days after service 

of the written statement upon it, serve upon the Requesting Party a written 

statement, in letter form or otherwise, which identifies (1) the requested items that 

will be disclosed, if any, and (2) the reasons why any requested items will not be 

disclosed. The Requesting Party may thereafter file a motion to compel.

(b) An opposed discovery related motion, or any response thereto, shall not exceed 7 

pages. Attachments to a discovery related motion, or a response thereto, shall not 

exceed 5 pages. No further briefing is allowed absent a request or order from the 

Court.

(c) Prior to filing any discovery related motion, the parties must fully comply with the 

substantive and procedural conference requirements of Local Rule CV-7(h) and (i). 

Within 72 hours of the Court setting any discovery motion for a hearing, each 

party’s lead attorney (see Local Rule CV-11(a)) and local counsel shall meet and 

confer in person or by telephone, without the involvement or participation of other 

attorneys, in an effort to resolve the dispute without Court intervention. 

(d) Counsel shall promptly notify the Court of the results of that meeting by filing a 

joint report of no more than two pages. Unless excused by the Court, each party’s 

lead attorney shall attend any discovery motion hearing set by the Court (though 

the lead attorney is not required to argue the motion).

(e) Any change to a party’s lead attorney designation must be accomplished by motion 

and order.

(f) Counsel are directed to contact the chambers of the undersigned for any “hot-line” 

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26(e). If the undersigned is not available, the parties shall proceed in accordance 

with Local Rule CV-26(e).

10. No Excuses. A party is not excused from the requirements of this Discovery Order because 

it has not fully completed its investigation of the case, or because it challenges the 

sufficiency of another party’s disclosures, or because another party has not made its 

disclosures. Absent court order to the contrary, a party is not excused from disclosure 

because there are pending motions to dismiss, to remand or to change venue.

11. Filings. Only upon request from chambers shall counsel submit to the court courtesy 

copies of any filings.

12. Proposed Stipulations by the Parties Regarding Discovery.

(a) Service by Electronic Mail: The Parties will make every effort to serve all 

documents electronically, either by ECF or by email. The parties agree to accept 

service by email to all counsel of record for the party to be served. Where a 

document is too large to serve by email, the serving party shall send an email 

notice providing instructions for downloading the document via FTP or similar 

file transfer service. 

(b) Third Party Discovery: A party who receives documents from a third party 

pursuant to a subpoena will reproduce those documents to the other party within 

a reasonable time, which is approximately three (3) to five (5) business days in 

most cases. Where reproduction of documents within a reasonable time is not 

possible, the party who received the documents will provide prompt notice to 

the other party and will work in good faith to resolve the issue on a case-bycase basis. If a third-party document production is made within five (5) business 

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days of a deposition of that third party, the receiving party shall produce those 

documents immediately and without delay to opposing counsel. The noticing 

party agrees to provide reasonable notice, including updates, to all other parties 

regarding third-party depositions with a third party, including if any such 

deposition is taken off-calendar or rescheduled to another time, such that, for 

example, all other parties have a fair opportunity to attend the deposition. A 

party may not unreasonably withhold proposed third-party deposition dates. 

Proposed deposition dates, in most cases, should be at least five (5) calendar 

days in the future.

(c) Privilege Log: The parties agree that the parties shall not be required to log any 

privileged communications, privileged documents, or other privileged 

information regarding the litigation created on or after the date of filing of the 

Complaint.

(d) Inadvertent Production: Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d), 

inadvertent production of materials covered by the attorney-client privilege, 

work-product protection, the joint defense and/or common interest privilege, 

and any other applicable privilege or immunity from production available under 

state or federal law of any kind is not waiver in this or any other federal or state 

proceeding. In case of inadvertent production, at the producing party’s request, 

the receiving party shall immediately return or destroy the inadvertently 

produced materials. The producing party will provide a privilege log in 

accordance with Paragraph 6 even if the inadvertently produced materials were 

created on or after the date of the Complaint in the applicable action. 

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13. Standing Orders. The parties and counsel are charged with notice of and are required to 

fully comply with each of the Standing Orders of this Court. Such are posted on the Court’s

website at http://www.txed.uscourts.gov/?q=court-annexed-mediation-plan. The substance 

of some such orders may be included expressly within this Discovery Order, while others 

(including the Court’s Standing Order Regarding Protection of Proprietary and/or 

Confidential Information to Be Presented to the Court During Motion and Trial Practice) 

are incorporated herein by reference. All such standing orders shall be binding on the 

parties and counsel, regardless of whether they are expressly included herein or made a 

part hereof by reference.

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