Stay Pending Third Party’s IPR Conditioned on Defendant’s Consent to Estoppel

The court granted defendant's motion to stay pending inter partes review during the very early stage of the case on the condition that defendant was estopped from re-raising any invalidity arguments the petitioner could have raised during IPR. "[Plaintiff] argues that defendant is not entitled to a stay based upon inter partes review because defendant did not file the petitions for inter partes review and is therefore not subject to the estoppel effect of a decision of the USPTO. . . . Since the court's stay is conditioned upon [defendant] being so estopped, the court concludes that a stay will not unduly prejudice plaintiff or present a clear tactical disadvantage to plaintiff."

e-Watch, Inc. v. FLIR Systems, Inc., 4-13-cv-00638 (TXSD August 8, 2013, Order) (Lake, J.).