Today’s the day: the start of a patent infringement trial before Chief U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim (D. Minn.) in Bombardier v. Arctic Cat. The case has been pending for about five years.
On Friday, Judge Tunheim decided a passel of “motions in limine,” that is, evidentiary motions on the threshold of trial.
If one thinks of every judicial decision up to and through trial as a fork in the road that has an impact on the ultimate destination or end-point of litigation, rulings like Judge Tunheim’s illustrate the impossibility of prediction and the inherent (and dramatic) uncertainty of civil litigation.
On balance, we think Bombardier came out on top in the pretrial evidentiary battle. Stay tuned to find out whether this trial actually goes to verdict and, if so, for whom and for how much.