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Order Denying Hyperphase Motion to Strike

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN HYPERPHRASE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
and HYPERPHRASE INC., Plaintiffs, v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Defendant. ORDER 02-C-647-C Pursuant to the modified scheduling order, the parties in this case had until June 25, 2003 to file summary judgment motions. Any electronic document may be e-filed until midnight on the due date. In a scandalous affront to this court’s deadlines, Microsoft did not file its summary judgment motions until 12:04:27 a.m. on June 26, 2003, with some supporting documents trickling in as late as 1:11:15 a.m. I don’t know this personally because I was home sleeping but that’s what the court’s computer docketing program says, so I’ll accept it as true. Microsoft’s insouciance so flustered Hyperphrase that nine of its attorneys […] promptly filed a motion to strike the summary judgment motion as untimely. Counsel used bolded italics to make their point, a clear sign of grievous iniquity by one’s foe. True, this court did not enter an order on June 20, 2003 ordering the parties not to flyspeck each other, but how could such an order apply to a motion filed almost five minutes late? Microsoft’s temerity was nothing short of a frontal assault on the precept of punctuality so cherished by and vital to this court. Wounded though this court may be by Microsoft’s four minute and twenty-seven second dereliction of duty, it will transcend the affront and forgive the tardiness. Indeed, to demonstrate the even-handedness of its magnanimity, the court will allow Hyperphrase on some future occasion in this case to e-file a motion four minutes and thirty seconds late, with supporting documents to follow up to seventy-two minutes later. Having spent more than that amount of time on Hyperphrase’s motion, it is now time to move on to other Gordian problems confronting this court. Plaintiff’s motion to strike is denied. Entered this 1st day of July, 2003. BY THE COURT:
[Signed]
STEPHEN L. CROCKER
Magistrate Judge

author avatar
Grant Barrett