In an interesting development, the judge presiding over the Source, Inc. rewards program patent infringement lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas Federal Court recused himself from the case last week.
The Source, Inc. civil lawsuit, filed in January of last year as I reported here, has been dragging on…and ON…due to Source’s slow service of process against the 38 defendants, which include some names you’ve probably heard of including Ebates.com and FatWallet.com. Source claims that they’re using this time to negotiate settlements out of court and that, to date, they’ve accomplished this with all but 10 of the remaining parties to the suit (see “II. RESPONSE TO MOTION TO DISMISS”) .
Judge John Ward, famous for being plaintiff-friendly and unwilling to allow changes of venue out of his jurisdiction, has presided over the case since it was filed. No reason was provided for why he stepped down, and it’s unclear who will replace him and whether this will delay the proceedings further.
