People.ai, Inc. v. SetSail Technologies, Inc.
- William Alsup
- 3:20-cv-09148
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In People.ai v. SetSail, Judge Alsup granted leave to file a second amended patent complaint and set a summary-judgment process.
People.ai, Inc. and SetSail Technologies, Inc.; the order permits People.ai to file a second amended complaint and imposes claim-selection, summary-judgment, discovery, and briefing requirements on both parties.
What happened
People.ai, Inc., the patent owner, asked to amend its complaint against SetSail Technologies, Inc., which it described as an alleged infringer. The case is People.ai, Inc. v. SetSail Technologies, Inc.
The court granted People.ai’s motion for leave to file a second amended complaint under the lenient amendment standard in Rule 15. It also directed the parties to select patent claims for a focused “patent showdown,” file cross-motions for summary judgment, and continue discovery and disclosures for the remaining claims.
Judge William Alsup said the order did not approve People.ai’s reasons for its earlier pleading problems. The order did not decide infringement, noninfringement, invalidity, or any other merits issue.
The detailed version
- People.ai, Inc. v. SetSail Technologies, Inc. · No. 3:20-cv-09148
- William Alsup
- Aug. 23, 2021
Background
People.ai, Inc., identified in the order as the patent owner, moved for permission to file a second amended complaint against SetSail Technologies, Inc., identified as an alleged infringer. The court determined that the motion could be decided on the written submissions and vacated the upcoming hearing.
Amendment ruling
The court applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15, which generally provides that permission to amend a pleading should be freely given when justice requires. Citing the Ninth Circuit’s instruction that courts should allow amendments with “extreme liberality,” the court granted People.ai’s motion for leave to file a second amended complaint.
The court expressly stated that granting the motion did not approve the reasons People.ai gave for being unable to frame its infringement allegations better.
Patent-showdown procedure
The court directed each party to select and exchange one asserted patent claim by September 13, 2021. People.ai could withdraw a claim by September 6; otherwise, SetSail could select any asserted claim, and that claim could not thereafter be withdrawn.
The parties were ordered to file one cross-motion for summary judgment each concerning the selected claims. The order imposed page limits on the briefing and supporting declarations and exhibits. It also required any proposed claim constructions—the court’s interpretations of disputed patent terms—to be included in the summary-judgment briefs rather than presented in separate briefs.
The court set deadlines of November 18, 2021, for opening briefs; December 13, 2021, for opposition briefs; and December 20, 2021, for reply briefs. It tentatively set a hearing for January 13, 2022, at 8:00 a.m.
The focused procedure applied only to direct-infringement claims involving the selected showdown claims. The remaining patents and claims stayed in the case, and the parties had to continue discovery and disclosures under the applicable local rules. If summary judgment did not resolve the selected claims, the lawyers were instructed to be prepared for a prompt trial on the remaining issues.
Disposition
Judge William Alsup granted the motion for leave to file a second amended complaint. The order also established the described case-management and summary-judgment procedures; it did not resolve the parties’ patent dispute on the merits.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.