Looks Likely That Settlement Talks Are Afoot -- In The "Son Of" Sunscreens Battle Royale

The readership may well recall that back in early February 2014, I had read an inadvertently un-redacted motion to amend the complaint in this battling sunscreen makers' patent fight.

Based on what I read there (i.e., allegations of significant inequitable conduct), I would have guessed that the patent holder might be considering settling. Why? Because if the allegations set forth in that motion were to turn out to be based upon solid evidence, the patent holder would be in significant peril, on several fronts, here. So I waited for some sign that concilliatory talks were underway.

Then just yesterday, in the federal District courthouse in Delaware, the able Judge Skleet disclosed that he had entered an oral order on April 1, 2014, pushing that morning's status call to June 2, 2014. The push was agreed to in advance by counsel for both sides. Given that the parties have completed the vast bulk of taking discovery depositions, in my experience, the longish delay (two months) would likely be. . . to discuss settlement. Each side now likely pretty well understands the other's positions, arguments, defenses and claims.

So, now we wait for "some white smoke, from the Vatican" (that a final settlement agreement has been reached) -- but here is the text of that oral order:

ORAL ORDER

. . . .Pursuant to the request of counsel, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: the status teleconference set in this matter for today is RESCHEDULED to 6/2/2014 at 02:30 PM before Judge Sherry R. Fallon. . . .

We shall see -- and should it occur in the way I am rather brashly guessing -- then the settlement will arrive just in time for summer sunscreen selling season. Good for both parties. [Now, if you want to know more about what the whole five year long fights are about, both patent invalidity and Lanham Act claims, just put "Royale" in the upper left search box. I think there are around 25 posts on various aspects of both battles.]

I do wonder aloud anew, as I first did in February, whether J&J will think about reopening the settled original sunscreen battle royale, if it looks like the patent holder has capitulated, here. [To be clear, most settlements of this sort cannot be reopened, absent some later discovered affirmative fraud -- in the explicit factual representations -- upon which the settlement was pinned. So. . . a high bar, to be sure -- but maybe one J&J could clear.] Worth at least a $1 bet, anyway.