And now for something completely different...

After so much fun, I thought it would be a good time for a wonky post about how to handle missed deadlines in civil litigation.  Particularly patent litigation.

One of the annoying things about patent litigation is that in many jurisdictions there are local rules that require the exchange of various pleading-like documents that set out the parties' infringement claims and invalidity defenses in great detail.  These are intended to replace the prior practice of exchanging contention interrogatories (though this is still the practice in most jurisdictions).  In my experience, these local rules generally create more problems than they solve, and create much satellite litigation about the timing and adequacy of the required disclosures.  While lawyers fight these issues out, the actual merits of the case sit off to the side.  Waiting.

I was reminded of this while reading an order issued yesterday by Magistrate Judge Jeffery Cole in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.