Last September, District Judge Gregory B. Williams took the federal Delaware bench, alongside Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly and Judges Richard G. Andrews and Maryellen Noreika, after Judge Leonard P. Stark left to join the Federal Circuit. Delaware has long been one of the busiest venues for patent litigation; it is therefore no surprise that six months into his tenure Judge Williams has now faced and resolved a good number of issues arising from the patent portion of his docket. In that time, with several trials on the horizon, he has issued multiple claim construction rulings; considered and resolved multiple Alice challenges; addressed discovery related to a third-party litigation funder; navigated, at least initially, a potential standing issue arising from the international source of patents that the plaintiff purportedly acquired through a receivership; and refused to enter a default judgment because the plaintiff’s pleading in the complaint “can charitably be described as sparse”, too sparse to establish infringement even upon default.

SurgeTech, LLC has filed its first litigation, suing Uber (1:22-cv-00882) over the provision of various services (Uber, Uber Eats, Uber Driver, Uber Freight, Uber Fleet, and Uber Eats Manager), targeting the surge pricing feature. Two patents generally related to a system for “managing online bookings for transportation services inventory” by adjusting prices based on the “performance rating” of a distribution channel are at issue in the new District of Delaware complaint. The assignment history for the patents-in-suit suggest that SurgeTech has the backing of a “boutique litigation funder”.