Some Patent Lawsuits Getting Moved Out Of East Texas
from the about-time dept
We’ve covered how and why many patent infringement lawsuits are filed in East Texas, but in March of last year, courts were given more leeway in transferring those cases out of East Texas to somewhere more convenient. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the massive filings in East Texas, sometimes in absurd situations, such as the one where some Silicon Valley lawyers whose offices are on the same street just a few blocks away from software giant Adobe filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the company in East Texas.
However, it does look like the Federal Circuit is at least somewhat paying attention to this issue, and recently transferred a patent infringement lawsuit out of Marshall, Texas, to Ohio, after noting that Ohio was “far more convenient.” Hopefully, we’ll start to see more actions like this when it’s abundantly clear that the only reason the lawsuit was filed in East Texas was due to jurisdiction shopping for the most favorable venue.
Filed Under: east texas, patent lawsuits, patents
Comments on “Some Patent Lawsuits Getting Moved Out Of East Texas”
Cue "Rocket Docket" apologists in
3…2…1…
Re: Cue "Rocket Docket" apologists in
Our good friend Gary Odom, aka the Patent Hawk, has already bemoaned the transfer on his own site:
Texas, particularly the Eastern District, has become famous for its sturdy and efficient dispatch of patent cases. One can only wonder if jealousy breeds contempt from a court less apt in that area of law.
Not really surprising that he filed his own patent infringement suit against Microsoft there as well. After all, Odom’s in Oregon and Microsoft’s in Washington – the two states are only next to each other. But instead the lawsuit is filed halfway across the country.
Apologists are going to keep justifying forum shopping because they have a better chance to win their infringement lawsuits that way. East Texas tends to rule in favor of the plaintiffs, which encourages the defendants to settle before the matter gets to the court, regardless of the merits of the case.
Apologists want to ignore location convenience and focus solely on the public interest factor, i.e. does the defendant operate or sell products in the state. Of course, that ignores the fact that the public interest is equally if not more relevant in a geographically closer court.
Re: Cue "Rocket Docket" apologists in
Forgot the relevant link – my apologies.
Patent Prospector: Get Out of Town
hahaha
I for one am going to invest in the commercial sector of east Texas, as I forsee a spike in commercial land development as the rise in local office purchases to go up.