S.D. Tex. P. R. 2-5 — Relationship to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

High confidence· verified September 26, 2026Local Rules

Summary

S.D. Tex. P. R. 2-5 — Relationship to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: the court's own rule, verbatim from RULES OF PRACTICE FOR PATENT CASES IN THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS ((Amended April 18, 2022)), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.

Requirement

(a) Unless the presiding judge otherwise directs, the scope of discovery is not limited to the preliminary infringement contentions or preliminary invalidity contentions, but is governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (b) Except as provided in this paragraph or as otherwise ordered, it is not a legitimate ground for objecting to an opposing party’s discovery request or declining to disclose information under FED. R. CIV. P. 26(a)(1) that the discovery request or disclosure requirement is premature or otherwise conflicts with these Patent Rules. A party may object to certain categories of discovery requests or may decline to disclose information under FED. R. CIV. P. 26(a)(1) on the ground that the request or disclosure is premature in light of the timetable provided in the Patent Rules. The categories are: (1) requests seeking to elicit a party’s claim construction position; (2) requests seeking to elicit from the patent claimant a comparison of the asserted claims and the accused apparatus, product, device, process, method, act, or other instrumentality; (3) requests seeking to elicit from an accused infringer a comparison of the asserted claims and the prior art; and (4) requests seeking to elicit from an accused infringer the identification of any opinions of counsel and related documents that it intends to rely upon as a defense to a willful infringement allegation; however, a party may not assert a prematurity objection to a request for nonprivileged information identifying the existence of such opinions of counsel. (c) When a party properly objects to a discovery request, or declines to provide information in its initial disclosures under FED. R. CIV. P. 26(a)(1), as set forth above, that party must provide the requested information on the date it is required to provide the requested information to an opposing party under these Patent Rules, unless there is another legitimate ground for objection.

Source of truth

(a) Unless the presiding judge otherwise directs, the scope of discovery is not limited to the preliminary infringement contentions or preliminary invalidity contentions, but is governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (b) Except as provided in this paragraph or as other

Official source: S.D. Tex. — Local & Federal Rules (U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas)
Source health: Healthy · checked October 4, 2026
Effective date: —
Last verified: September 26, 2026benchpath-appfed-rules-2026-09-25

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