Federal Circuit Moves Patent Case Out of Texas December 2, 2009
Following up on our discussion about bringing patent suits in the Eastern District (E.D.) of Texas on Podcast 27, the Federal Circuit (the Federal Appeals court that hears all patent cases) issued a ruling today ordering the E.D. Texas to move a case filed there to the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The court’s reasoning was that there was virtually no connection between the suit and the E.D. Texas, and that the E.D. of North Carolina was “clearly more convenient.” This is in line with a growing number of cases that are not looking favorably on the practice of what’s called forum shopping, or bringing your law suit in the place that’s most favorable to your side, but not best for getting witnesses, or administering justice. It’s also another example of the courts stepping in to fix a problem where Congress has failed to act (with regard to the patent reform act, we mentioned in the podcast).
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