Opinion ID: 2680234
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The District Court Trial and Mediation

Text: On April 5, 2010, CEATS sued Continental in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas for infringement of four patents. The district court ordered the parties to participate in mediation and appointed former Magistrate Judge Robert Faulkner as the mediator on September 28, 2010. The parties conducted two mediation sessions before Faulkner—one on June 21, 2011 and another on June 30, 2011. 1 Because the parties failed to reach a settlement during mediation, the matter 1 The parties refer to the mediator as Judge Faulk- ner, presumably to provide due respect to his former position. Because we draw distinctions between the role of a mediator and that of a judge, we refer to former Judge Faulkner as simply Faulkner, to avoid confusion. 4 CEATS, INC. v. CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, INC. proceeded to trial. Thomas Melsheimer, a partner at Fish & Richardson P.C. (“Fish”), served as lead trial counsel. Fish represented some, but not all, of the accused infringers before the trial court. During the 8-day jury trial, the parties conducted further mediation sessions, but again failed to reach a settlement. On March 21, 2012, the jury found CEATS’s patents infringed, but invalid.