Iomega Corp. v. Castlewood Systems Inc. (UT 1:99-cv-

00080 filed 07/06/1999).

Patent infringement action by a data storage

manufacturer. The case settled. The defendants

failed to fulfill their obligations under the settlement

agreement. The plaintiffs filed a sealed motion

for entry of a stipulated judgment pursuant

to the settlement agreement. The judgment later

was unsealed. For the defendants’ failing to make

the $10,000 payment by the date specified in the

settlement agreement, the court awarded the

plaintiffs $1,775,000 in damages plus attorney

fees.

MCI Communications Corp. v. Essential Voice

Computing Inc. (VA-E 3:00-cv-00105 filed

02/25/2000).

Patent infringement action involving a telephonebased

personnel tracking system. Three months

after a settlement agreement was reached, the defendants

refused to execute the final documents.

The plaintiff filed a motion to enforce the settlement

agreement, and the court granted a motion

to seal the motion because it contained settlement

terms. The court ordered a consent judgment with

a permanent injunction. The court retained jurisdiction

to enforce the consent judgment and permanent

injunction

Sun Microsystems Inc. v. Dataram Corp. (CA-N 4:02-

cv-01010 filed 08/29/1996).

Patent action concerning single in-line memory

modules. A settlement agreement was put on the

record at a settlement conference before a magistrate

judge. One month later, the defendant

moved ex parte to preempt the plaintiff’s planned

motion before the district judge to enforce the settlement

agreement, arguing that the district judge

should be shielded from matters of settlement

negotiations. The magistrate judge recused herself

because she had become “too close to the parties

and the issues in this case,” and the motion to enforce

was filed under seal and heard by a second

magistrate judge. He denied the motion to enforce

by sealed order. After three more months of litigation,

the case was dismissed by stipulated

sealed order. A year and a half later the defendant

filed a sealed motion to enforce a settlement

agreement. Six months later the case again was

dismissed by stipulated order.

SanDisk Corp. v. Viking Components Inc. (CA-N

3:01-cv-01816 filed 05/01/2001).

Patent infringement action concerning electronic

flash memory cards. The parties stipulated to an

injunction preventing the defendant from selling

flash memory cards that include any of enumerated

models of flash memory controllers. The

stipulated injunction states that the court will retain

jurisdiction to enforce a settlement agreement

to be filed under seal and incorporated by reference

into the injunction. The day after the judge

signed the stipulated injunction, a settlement

agreement was filed under seal pursuant to an

order granting permission to do so.