A third trial begins today in the Western District of Texas in the ever-widening set of disputes between VLSI Technology LLC and Intel. In the first half of 2021, a pair of Waco juries went in opposite directions, the first awarding VLSI $2.2B but the second turning away VLSI’s $3B damages ask. Since then, those dockets have seen furious storms of posttrial motions and orders from the court, most of them sealed. However, this past week District Judge Alan D. Albright made public a denial of Intel’s motion to amend its answer in the first case to assert a license defense based on the 2020 purchase of Finjan, Inc. by Fortress Investment Group LLC. Intel has contended, in multiple courts, that that acquisition gave rise to a license to all of Fortress’s patent holdings. In denying Intel’s motion, Judge Albright ruled, among other things, that the “proposed amendment would be futile because VLSI is not a party to the agreement”—but Judge Albright’s is unlikely to be the last word on this subject.