A stunning turn of events: on the day before trial was set to begin in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence, Judge Stephanos Bibas issued a new ruling postponing the trial. Judge Bibas also rescinded all oral rulings made on August 20, 2024. Plus, Judge Bibas invited the parties to renew their motions for summary judgment.
“ORAL ORDER: Based on this morning’s discussion with the parties, I CONTINUE this trial without setting a future date. I rescind all rulings made orally to the parties at the Zoom teleconference on Tuesday, August 20, 2024. Instead, I invite Thomson Reuters to renew its motions for summary judgment on those issues and Ross to renew its cross-motion for summary judgment on fair use. Thus, the parties may submit two sets of additional briefing on (1) copyrightability, validity, and infringement, and (2) the defense of fair use. In the briefing, the parties may also choose to address merger, scenes a faire, copyright misuse, and innocent infringement, as I instructed this morning. The parties shall meet and confer on a new briefing schedule, page limits, and dates for a two-day summary judgment hearing. The parties shall propose a joint scheduling order to the Court by 5 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, August 28. Ordered by Judge Stephanos Bibas on 8/22/2024.”
Yesterday, we sensed something was amiss because the parties filed statements regarding an apparent order issued by Judge Bibas (now we know it was made on Tuesday, August 20, even though the docket doesn’t report it) that may have found direct infringement as to some aspects of the case, presumably the copying of headnotes, which was an issue as to the infringement question that Judge Bibas had said should go to the jury in his prior order in 2023.
Stunning.