These motions are important because they can be determine the course of a case. If a party loses any of these motions, the chances for prevailing are diminished. Often the loss of one of these motions will cause a party to abandon the lawsuit.
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Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) or Preliminary Injunction ("PI") which applies to plaintiffs
These motions are important because they can be determine the course of a case. If a party loses any of these motions, the chances for prevailing are diminished. Often the loss of one of these motions will cause a party to abandon the lawsuit.
The motions for TRO and PI are sometimes case determinative because they can potentially severely hamper the losing party’s ongoing business operations if it is prevented from continuing to develop or sell the product in question. For example, Rod represented the defendant in this case:
The defendant was selling a telephone card through a national retail chain. The plaintiff, a competing telephone card company, sued, alleging trademark and trade dress infringement, claiming that the defendant’s phone card looked too much like its telephone card. The plaintiff sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the defendant from continuing to sell his phone cards through the retail chain.
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Motions Continued and Markman Hearing
If the plaintiff had prevailed with this motion, it would have severely disrupted the defendant’s business and would have placed enormous pressure on the defendant to settle with the plaintiff.
In this case the plaintiff lost the TRO motion and sought a preliminary injunction. If the plaintiff has won the PI motion, then the defendant would have been blocked from selling his telephone cards through the retail chain (or through any other venue without redesigning the card) until the resolution of the lawsuit, which might be months or years away. This would have also placed enormous pressure on the defendant to settle.
The summary judgment motion decides the case before it gets to trial.
The Markman Hearing, which is always in front of a judge, determines claim construction for patents. If a party does not fare well in this hearing, it may not have much left with which to sway a jury.
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