Keystone, Signify, and the Timing of The Super Bowl
On 10 February, your humble editor reported on a Signify motion regarding Keystone filed on 7 February—just two days before the Super Bowl (apparently, that’s an important detail).
Signify and Keystone Technologies are engaged in a legal battle over confidentiality protections in a patent case before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. (For the sake of this article, the state is also an important detail.) Both companies agree on the need to safeguard sensitive business data but remain divided on whether to impose a patent prosecution bar. This restriction would prevent attorneys from working on related patents after reviewing confidential information. Keystone supports stricter measures, including a two-year ban on LED lighting patents, while Signify argues for a more balanced approach with a one-year restriction on unreleased products.
On 10 February, Judge Chad F. Kenney slammed Signify and denied their motion without prejudice, criticizing the company’s timing. In his order, he wrote:
“Filing the instant motion on Friday afternoon of Super Bowl weekend with the Rule 16 scheduled for the following Tuesday does not seem collegial towards the associate who needs to develop the Defense position before Tuesday.”
The judge pointed out that the motion could have been filed much earlier, as discussions had been ongoing since November 2024. The parties reached an impasse in December and formally acknowledged their disagreement in a report submitted on 21 January 2025.
In response, Judge Kenney canceled the 11 February pretrial conference, rescheduling it for 18 February, and issued a warning:
“The Court does not appreciate the inefficiency this has caused and hopes this is not an indication of how this litigation will proceed. If it is, this Court will order CEOs into the courtroom and assign a discovery master.”
While I am not sure what a discovery master is, I don’t think either company will want that.