Related Litigation Between Co-Defendants Warrants Severance

The court granted defendant's motion to sever it from plaintiff's infringement action because of the relationship between the defendants. "[The two defendants] are more than competitor co-defendants — they are also adversaries in another lawsuit involving similar technologies and patents as the present suit. [The co-defendant] also has pending patent applications claiming priority to patents asserted against [the moving defendant] in the [other] Suit. This creates a very real threat that [the co-defendant] will (even unintentionally) use confidential information obtained from [the moving defendant] in [this] Suit during prosecution of its pending applications. There is also a threat that [the co-defendant] will use confidential. . . information obtained in [this] Suit against it in the [other] Suit. This conflict puts [the moving defendant] between Scylla and Charybdis."

TracBeam, L.L.C. v. AT&T Inc., et. al., 6-11-cv-00096 (TXED January 23, 2013, Order) (Davis, J.).