March 28, 2012 – The court in the Eastern District of Texas granted Round Rock’s [NPE] motion to compel Oracle to respond to an interrogatory seeking an explanation of Oracle’s non-infringement contentions.  Oracle opposed the motion arguing that it, “prematurely seeks to elicit Defendant’s claim construction positions… [and] the request is unduly burdensome given the amount of claims alleged.”  In granting the motion, the judge relied on Patent Rule 2-5 and stated that Oracle’s objection was improper because rather than being designed to elicit Oracle’s claim construction, the interrogatory is simply, “attempting to specifically determine Defendant’s non-infringement contentions.”  The judge also noted Oracle’s argument that a non-infringement contention is tantamount to claim construction by stating that it “has been rejected by other courts in this district.”  Round Rock Research holds patents that were originally developed by Micron Technology and stated in a February 2010 interview with The American Lawyer that the company would share an undisclosed percentage of licensing revenue with Micron.  The suit against Oracle was filed in June 2011 asserting nine patents related to distributed data processing.