Lawyers at Latham & Watkins representing Symantec Corp. can't refer to Intellectual Ventures as a “troll” or bash the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for issuing bad patents when a scheduled trial gets underway later this month, a Delaware judge has ruled.

Symantec will also have to wait until after the 10-day jury trial, set to begin on Jan. 26, to try to persuade U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington that the software security technology at issue wasn't eligible to be patented, clearing the way for IV's lawyers at Susman Godfrey to argue that Symantec and another defendant owe more than $300 million for infringement.

In a four-page ruling Tuesday on several pretrial motions, Stark limited what Latham can say about patent acquisition giant IV and the patent office during the upcoming jury trial. He also decided not to deal with patent eligibility questions until after the trial ends. But the judge's rulings came with caveats that may allow Symantec's lawyers at Latham to get their points across anyway.