Ed Kinkeade

Judge Ed Kinkeade: United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Judge Overview

Ed Kinkeade is a Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, sitting in the Dallas division. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and received his commission on November 15, 2002. Before his federal appointment, Judge Kinkeade had an extensive career in the Texas state judiciary, serving as a Justice on the Texas Court of Appeals, Fifth District (1988-2002), a judge on the 194th Judicial District Court in Dallas (1981-1988), and a judge on the Dallas County Criminal Court (1981). Prior to taking the bench, he was in private practice from 1974 to 1980. Judge Kinkeade holds a J.D. from Baylor University School of Law and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Patent Docket and Case Management

As a judge in the Dallas Division, Judge Kinkeade operates under the district's "Third Amended Miscellaneous Order No. 62," which provides a comprehensive framework for the management of patent cases. This order governs the timing and substance of infringement and invalidity contentions, claim construction proceedings, and discovery. Judge Kinkeade's individual case management procedures emphasize efficiency and adherence to schedule. He does not hold preliminary pretrial conferences, instead issuing a scheduling order after the parties submit a joint status report. His scheduling orders set firm deadlines, and he rarely grants continuances, requiring a showing of "extraordinary circumstances" even if the request is unopposed. Judge Kinkeade strongly favors early mediation and orders it in every case. While he does not routinely refer motions to magistrate judges, he also does not regularly hold oral arguments on motions, addressing them on a case-by-case basis.

Notable Rulings and Trends

While specific analytics on his patent docket are not publicly available, Judge Kinkeade has handled a variety of patent disputes. In one notable discovery ruling in Innovative Sonic Limited v. Research in Motion, he issued a thorough opinion denying a motion to compel pre-litigation testing materials, finding them protected by the work product doctrine because they were created at the request of counsel in anticipation of litigation. In a significant post-trial decision in a trade secrets and copyright case involving virtual reality technology (ZeniMax Media Inc. v. Oculus VR LLC), Judge Kinkeade cut a $500 million jury verdict in half, granting judgment as a matter of law to the defendants on a false designation of origin claim worth $250 million. The recently filed case of AML IP LLC v. Dave & Busters Inc, assigned to Judge Kinkeade on April 17, 2026, concerns alleged infringement of a patent related to transaction systems.

Local Rules and Procedures

Judge Kinkeade's courtroom practices are clearly defined in his Judge-Specific Requirements, which supplement the Northern District's local civil rules and Miscellaneous Order No. 62. A distinctive requirement is his practice for filings: for any dispositive motion or any filing exceeding 25 pages, parties must deliver a single-sided, portrait-format paper copy to the Clerk's office within three business days of the electronic filing. His trial procedures specify that he conducts the principal voir dire and requires proposed jury instructions to cite all supporting authorities. Deadlines for summary judgment motions are typically set at least 120 days before trial. Judge Kinkeade also strictly enforces the local counsel requirement. Recently, he has also gained attention for enforcing a local rule requiring disclosure of the use of generative artificial intelligence in filings.