Dennis Crouch's Patently-O: Choosing a District for Patent Infringement Filing and Giving Meaning to Section 1400(b)

---

Choosing a District for Patent Infringement Filing and Giving Meaning to Section 1400(b) Posted: 27 Oct 2015 12:16 PM PDT by Dennis Crouch Back in 2008, I remember speaking with Judge Rader about the court’s recent jurisprudence.  My thought was that In re TS Tech (Fed. Cir. 2008) was the most important of the year thus far. In that case, the Federal Circuit started the trend of mandamus actions for venue change that had an important (although not conclusive) impact on venue in patent cases.  Following TS Tech, patent plaintiffs learned ways to shape their behavior to better ensure venue by, for example, incorporating in Texas and creating a headquarters in Marshall.  At that time, we also saw a rise in patent infringement filings in Delaware – the corporate home for many companies, plaintiffs and defendants alike. The new pending mandamus petition of  In re TC Heartland (Fed. Cir. 2015) has the potential of even more dramatically shaking-up patent litigation filing strategy and limiting the extensive forum shopping available under current Federal Circuit doctrine.   In particular, the E.D. Texas filings might be brought-back into the norm. The Federal Circuit has taken its first step toward hearing the mandamus action by ordering Kraft to provide a response to Heartland’s petition.  The per curiam order requires Kraft to respond within seven days. 10-26-15Order. In the case, Heartland proposes a reinterpretation of the more powerful doctrine of jurisdiction rather than the venue requirements of TS Tech. Under Heartland’s proposed statutory interpretation, a patent case could only be filed in districts (1) where the defendant resides or (2) where the defendant has both committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business. This stems directly from the language of 28 U.S.C. 1400(b). Further, in cases where a court’s personal jurisdiction over the defendant is based on acts of infringement in the forum (specific jurisdiction rather than general jurisdiction), Heartland argues that the courts don’t have jurisdiction to adjudge the alleged out-of-state infringement. Susan Decker provides more perspective in Bloomberg.

You are subscribed to email updates from Patently-O » Patent. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States