In August 2021, Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap overturned a $308M verdict that Personalized Media Communications, LLC (PMC) had won against Apple in March, ruling that the NPE’s strategic delay in prosecuting the tried patent rendered it unenforceable due to the equitable doctrine of prosecution laches. A divided panel of the Federal Circuit has upheld that judgment, ruling both that PMC’s delay in prosecution was unreasonable and inexcusable and that Apple suffered prejudice attributable to that delay. However, Judge Leonard P. Stark penned a dissent that throws PMC a potential lifeline, arguing that while PMC’s delay in prosecution was unreasonable and inexcusable, Apple failed to prove prejudice during the period of delay.