Supreme Court Curtails Patent Case

Posted by Andy_Updegrove on May 23, 2017 3:36 AM EDT
ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog; By Andy Updegrove
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The Supreme Court issued an opinion today that restricts the ability of patent owners to choose the court in which they bring an infringement suit. That means life just got harder for patent trolls.

The case is called TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Food Group Banks LLC, and the justices unanimously ruled in favor of the new restrictions. The importance of the decision arises from the fact that litgants have always engaged in "forum shopping," meaning a party files suit in a given court because that's where they think they will win.

For patent owners, that means the federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas, where 35% of all patent cases are brought. Until today's decision, a patent owner could bring an infringement suit in any court where the defendant could be sued generally, which in most cases meant almost any federal district court - including the E. D. of Texas.

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