Context: The Wi-Fi standard-essential patent (SEP) dispute in the Eastern District of Texas between Wilus (a Sisvel licensor and client) and two implementers (Samsung as well as ASUS subsidiary Askey) has given rise to interesting motions:
- A couple of months ago, Wilus filed a motion to obtain the first U.S. SEP injunction in almost 20 years (February 19, 2026 ip fray article) against router maker Askey, a motion that patent pool administrator Access Advance, whose pools contain video (not Wi-Fi) patents, supported for overarching reasons (April 22, 2026 ip fray article).
- Wilus also argued that Samsung and Askey were no longer entitled to fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms after years of hold-out (March 6, 2026 ip fray article), which Samsung disputed (April 16, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: On Tuesday (April 29, 2026), Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas first changed the time of the pretrial conference (which had been scheduled for Wednesday (April 29, 2026) all along, and later canceled it altogether. At the hearing, the motions mentioned above would have been discussed as well.
Direct impact: The usual course of action in U.S. district court (and specifically also in Judge Gilstrap’s court) is to set a new date for a pretrial conference if anything (such as someone catching a virus) comes in between. A cancelation makes it less likely that this case will ever continue. It may, but apparently the judge does not expect it to.
Wider ramifications: The motion to suspend FRAND would not have raised a novel question for that district. Only appellate clarification would have contributed to the development of the related case law. The motion for a permanent injunction, however, would have led to an interesting decision one way or the other (plus potential appellate clarification, such as at the stay stage).
This was the first docket entry on Tuesday concerning the pretrial conference:
NOTICE of Hearing: Pretrial Conference set for 4/29/2026 at 10:00 AM in Ctrm 106 (Marshall) before District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. **NOTE: ONLY THE TIME HAS CHANGED. (aeb) (Entered: 04/28/2026)
And this was the cancelation notice:
Pretrial Conference set for 4/29/2026 at 10:00 AM in Ctrm 106 (Marshall) before District Judge Rodney Gilstrap has been CANCELLED.
We have recently been checking on this docket on an almost daily basis. It appears that the cancelation notice was filed rather late in the day by local (Central) Time.
HP is still named in the case caption, but it settled a while ago, presumably due to pressure in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) where it was headed for an injunction over a Huawei Wi-Fi SEP (November 18, 2025 ip fray article).