The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has agreed to hear oral arguments in a case that could result in a major shift in the geographic distribution of patent cases and make it more difficult to sue for infringement in the plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas.
For years, lawyers have complained that the court’s interpretation of the patent statute has made it easy for patent holders to sue in any district court, even if the parties have no connection to the jurisdiction. That interpretation has had the unforeseen consequence of allowing plaintiffs to flock to the Eastern District of Texas, which is considered the most plaintiff and patent friendly of all jurisdictions. As a result, almost half of all patent cases filed last year landed there. In fact, plaintiffs filed 2,540 patent cases in the Eastern District in 2015, or 43.6 percent of all patent cases filed last year. Nearly a third of all patent cases filed in 2015 ended up before U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap (in the photo). This was more cases than were filed in the next 17 districts combined.
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