S.D. Tex. P. R. 4-5 — Claim Construction Briefs and Charts

High confidence· verified September 26, 2026Local Rules

Summary

S.D. Tex. P. R. 4-5 — Claim Construction Briefs and Charts: 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) By the deadlines set in the Scheduling Order: (1) the party claiming patent infringement must serve and file an opening brief and any evidence supporting its claim construction; (2) each opposing party must serve and file its responsive brief and supporting evidence; (3) the party claiming patent infringement must serve and file its reply brief and any evidence directly rebutting the supporting evidence contained in an opposing party’s response; and (4) the parties must submit the Joint Claim Construction Chart (see P.R. 4-5(b)) on electronic media in Word format or in such other format as the presiding judge directs. (b) The Joint Claim Construction Chart must contain: (1) a column listing in separate rows the complete language of each disputed claim, with disputed terms in bold type; (2) separate columns for each party’s proposed construction of each disputed term; (3) a column entitled “Court’s Construction” and otherwise left blank; and (4) the patent and claim numbers where the disputed terms appears. (c) The parties may also list agreed claim terms in the Joint Claim Construction Chart. If included, the agreed terms must be marked “[AGREED]” and state in the “Court’s Construction” column the parties’ agreed construction. (d) The purpose of the Joint Claim Construction Chart is to assist the presiding judge and the parties in tracking and resolving disputed terms. Accordingly, aside from the requirements of this rule, the parties are afforded substantial latitude to fashion a chart in a format that most clearly and efficiently outlines the disputed terms and proposed constructions.

Source of truth

(a) By the deadlines set in the Scheduling Order: (1) the party claiming patent infringement must serve and file an opening brief and any evidence supporting its claim construction; (2) each opposing party must serve and file its responsive brief and supporting evidence; (3) the

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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