Wednesday, May 26, 2021 The Federal Circuit’s recent opinion in limine (MIL) order. Rather, the district court judge’s curative instructions and procedures to avoid future violations of a MIL may be sufficient to enable a jury render a just verdict. Moreover, because the district judge’s evidentiary rulings are subject to the deferential abuse of discretion standard of appellate review, overturning the denial of a motion for a new trial in such circumstances will be difficult to overturn. District Court Trial In March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic led to wide-scale shutdowns across the nation, an infringement trial began in the District of Delaware between plaintiff Pacific Biosciences of California (“PacBio”) and defendants Oxford Nanopore Technologies Inc. and Limited (collectively “Oxford Nanopore”). The trial involved patents claiming methods for sequencing nucleic acids such as DNA.