Judge Bibas just scheduled the 2-day hearing on the parties’ renewed motions for summary judgment for Dec. 5 and 6. But he also asked the parties for potential trial dates should the resolution of the motions for summary judgment still leave a need for trial.
If you recall, on the day before trial was set to begin, Judge Bibas continued the case and asked the parties to renew their motions for summary judgment. That occurred in part because earlier in that week Judge Bibas granted partial summary judgment ruling that at least some of the copying of Westlaw materials was infringement. That oral ruling Judge Bibas later rescinded after the defendant ROSS filed a motion for a continuance because the ruling affected ROSS’s trial strategy with only a few days before the beginning of trial.
It’s too hard to predict what happens next. But it is at least possible that the case goes to trial in close to the same posture as Judge Bibas’s original ruling denying summary judgment.
ORAL ORDER: In response to the parties’ joint letter (D.I. 671 ), I ORDER the parties to reserve December 5, 2024, and December 6, 2024, for oral argument on the renewed summary judgment motions. Also, given the busy schedules of all involved, I would like to reserve five days in early 2025 to use if the case proceeds to trial after resolution of the renewed summary judgment motions. I thus ORDER the parties to confer about possible dates for a continued trial and inform the Court of those dates by November 1, 2024. Signed by Judge Stephanos Bibas on 10/1/2024. (mpb) (Entered: 10/02/2024)