Unlock Legal Intelligence, Craft Winning Strategies

Argus analyzes millions of court documents to reveal judge-specific tendencies, streamline motion analysis, visualize reasoning, and power deep research—giving your team a strategic edge.

Insights derived from decisions across:

Federal District CourtsCircuit Courts of AppealsState Appellate CourtsBankruptcy CourtsPatent Trial and Appeal Board

Judicial Preferences: Hon. James Donato

N.D. Cal.

In contract MSJs, Judge Donato emphasizes plain language but thoroughly analyzes context and relevant California law (e.g., Cal. Civ. Code § 1638). He expects parties not to 'sandbag' arguments and requires genuine disputes evidenced by more than attorney argument or conclusory declarations.

MSJ Grant Rate (Judge D - Contract)

35%

Ambiguity Found Rate (Judge D)

40%

Orders Citing Cal. Civ. Code §1638+

Frequent

Key Tendencies (for Summary Judgment (Contract))

  • Focuses on contract's plain meaning first, citing §1638.
  • Requires objective evidence for ambiguity; less swayed by subjective interpretations.
  • Enforces waiver if arguments are raised too late (anti-sandbagging).
+ 5 more tendencies
MOTION ANALYSIS

Instantly Classify Motions & Understand Outcomes

Argus automatically identifies motion types, outcomes, and the critical factors driving the court's decision, saving hours of manual review.

Motion Classification & Outcome

Case: Oracle America, Inc. v. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (9th Cir. (reviewing N.D. Cal.))

Motion: Appeal of Grant of Summary Judgment (Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part on 2020-08-20)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's summary judgment for HPE regarding copyright and IIPEA claims barred by the statute of limitations, finding Oracle had constructive knowledge and failed to investigate timely. However, the panel reversed the summary judgment for HPE on the remaining copyright infringement claims. Key errors identified were the district court's failure to consider alleged infringing 'pre-installation conduct' (accessing/downloading patches via Terix) when interpreting Oracle's licenses for indirect infringement, and improperly granting summary judgment on direct infringement claims (HPE's own installations) where triable issues remained.

Key Outcome Drivers:

General Factors Influencing Outcome:

Factors Favoring Grant:

  • Evidence establishing Oracle's constructive knowledge of potential claims (supporting SOL bar)
  • Lack of reasonable investigation by Oracle despite constructive knowledge (supporting SOL bar)
  • District court's failure to analyze license scope regarding pre-installation conduct (supporting reversal)
  • Evidence raising factual questions about direct installation by HPE (supporting reversal)
  • Potential breadth of license terms covering more than just installation

Factors Favoring Denial:

  • Arguments that Oracle lacked timely knowledge or investigated reasonably (arguing against SOL bar)
  • District court's interpretation focusing license infringement solely on installation
  • Arguments that pre-installation conduct (access/download) was not infringing under the licenses
  • HPE's arguments that no genuine factual dispute existed regarding its direct installations

Supporting Detail for Driver 1:

The panel held that under the Copyright Act’s three-year statute of limitations, Oracle’s copyright infringement claims were barred for conduct before May 6, 2012... The panel concluded that Oracle had constructive knowledge and thus a duty to investigate but did not conduct a reasonable investigation...

Link to Reasoning Chain
LOGICAL FLOW

Visualize the Court's Reasoning Step-by-Step

Go beyond summaries. Follow the exact logical path—legal standards, arguments considered, application to facts—with our Interactive Reasoning Chain.

Interactive Reasoning Chain

Case: Oracle America, Inc. v. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (9th Cir. (reviewing N.D. Cal.))

Motion: Appeal of Grant of Summary Judgment (Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part)

Explore the logical structure of the court's decision. Select elements to view corresponding text passages.

Selected Reasoning Snippet:

FOCUS

The panel first addresses whether Oracle's claims for copyright infringement and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage (IIPEA) are barred by the applicable statutes of limitations...

CORE CAPABILITIES

Unlock Deeper Legal Understanding

Argus analyzes court decisions providing clarity and strategic advantage through unique AI-driven features.

Judicial Preferences

Visualize judge-specific tendencies, key citations, reasoning patterns, and potential leanings based on their past opinions.

Motion Classification

Automatically identify motion types, outcomes, and the crucial factors driving the court's ruling, synthesized for quick analysis.

Reasoning Chain

Trace the court's step-by-step logic interactively. See how legal standards were applied to facts for each key issue.

DeepSearch Reports

Go beyond keywords. Ask complex questions and receive AI-synthesized research reports identifying key themes, cases, and trends.

Built on Extensive Legal Data

Our algorithms are developed using millions of judicial opinions providing broad and deep analytical capability.

5,200+

Judges Analyzed

1.2M+

Court Opinions Processed

Multi-Jurisdiction

Federal & State Coverage

HOW IT WORKS

Advanced Algorithms for Legal Intelligence

Our platform harnesses the power of machine learning and natural language processing to transform raw legal data into actionable insights.

Data Ingestion & Structuring

We aggregate and process decisions from federal and state courts, extracting text and metadata using advanced OCR and NLP.

  • Structured data from millions of documents
  • Proprietary entity recognition
  • Continuous updates

Data Sources

Federal

District & Appeal

State

Appellate & Supreme

Bankruptcy

All Districts

Metadata

Dates, Judges, etc.

Raw Data - Structured

Analysis & Modeling

We utilize state-of-the-art algorithms, fine-tuned on legal text, to analyze reasoning patterns, summarize complex decisions, and understand judicial preferences.

  • Judge-specific pattern identification
  • Conceptual vector embeddings

Workflow

Structured Text - Legal Engine
Reasoning & Pattern Analysis
Profile & Chain Output
NLP Processing

Insight Delivery

Access insights through an intuitive interface featuring interactive visualizations, deep search, and clear summaries connected directly to the source documents.

  • Interactive Reasoning & Mind Maps
  • Conceptual search & In-depth Memos
  • Motion outcome analysis

Actionable Insights

Reasoning Flow
Judge Insights
Research Reports
USE CASES

Transform Your Legal Workflow

Leverage Argus's deep analysis capabilities across various stages of litigation and research.

Motion Practice & Analysis

Quickly understand outcomes, dissect reasoning (Reasoning Chain), and tailor arguments based on judge preferences (Mind Map).

Judicial Strategy & Prep

Gain deep insights using the Mind Map. Understand citation patterns, concepts, and tendencies for oral arguments and briefs.

Advanced Legal Research

Use Conceptual Search for analogous cases. Get research memos for complex legal questions focused on specific judges.

Team Collaboration

Standardize analysis with Reasoning Chains and summaries. Share judge insights easily across teams.

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