By Memorandum Order entered by The Honorable Leonard P. Stark in Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC v. TC Heartland, LLC et al., Civil Action No. 14-28-LPS, the Court denied the Heartland defendants' motion to stay all case-dispositive matters in the patent infringement action, including dispositive pre-trial rulings and the trial, pending the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the venue issue before it through its granting of the Heartland defendants' petition for a writ of certiorari on December 14, 2016.
In denying the motion for partial stay, the Court found important the facts that the case has been pending for three years and the Heartland defendants had never before requested a stay or expressed concern about the case moving forward, Kraft and the Heartland defendants are competitors and any delay would be prejudicial to Kraft, and denying the stay would enable the parties to complete the remaining discovery and get the case ready for trial later in 2017, regardless of which District the trial is held. Id. at *4-5. The Court noted that the directive of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 1 of securing a "just, speedy and inexpensive determination" is better served by the Court deciding the ripe motions before it rather than possibly leaving for some judge in another District to have to untangle. Id. at *5. The Court, however, did move the trial date from May to October 2017 to allow time for the parties to receive the Supreme Court's decision before trial. Id. at *5-6.
A copy of the Memorandum Order is attached.
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