S.D. Tex. P. R. 3-5 — Disclosure Requirement in Patent Cases Seeking Declaratory Judgment

High confidence· verified September 26, 2026Local Rules

Summary

S.D. Tex. P. R. 3-5 — Disclosure Requirement in Patent Cases Seeking Declaratory Judgment: 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) Invalidity Contentions If No Infringement Claim. In all cases in which a party seeks a declaratory judgment (“declaratory plaintiff”) that a patent is not infringed, is invalid, or is unenforceable, P.R. 3-1 and 3-2 do not apply unless and until a party makes a patent infringement claim. If the declaratory defendant does not assert a patent infringement claim in its response to the claim, then, by the deadline set in the Scheduling Order, the declaratory plaintiff must serve on each opposing party its Preliminary Invalidity Contentions conforming to P.R. 3-3 and must produce or make available for inspection and copying the documents and information described in P.R. 3-4. The declaratory plaintiff will file its Final Invalidity Contentions by the deadline in the Scheduling Order. (b) Application of Rules When No Specified Triggering Event. If the pleadings in a case do not initially trigger the application of these Patent Rules, but later filings reveal that patent claims or issues are involved, the parties, as soon as practicable, must confer about whether these Patent Rules should be applied to the case and notify the presiding judge of the issue. (c) Inapplicability. P.R. 3-5 does not apply to cases in which a request for a declaratory judgment that a patent is not infringed, is invalid, or is unenforceable is filed in response to a complaint alleging infringement of the same patent.

Source of truth

(a) Invalidity Contentions If No Infringement Claim. In all cases in which a party seeks a declaratory judgment (“declaratory plaintiff”) that a patent is not infringed, is invalid, or is unenforceable, P.R. 3-1 and 3-2 do not apply unless and until a party makes a patent infring

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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