East Texas Judges Test Joinder Limits in Patent Reform's Wake

The Eastern District of Texas became a magnet for patent infringement litigation partly because its judges permitted sprawling multidefendant cases, ensuring settlement-inducing headaches for patent troll targets. Congress and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently clamped down on multidefendant cases, but a new day isn’t exactly dawning for defendants already ensnared in East Texas patent litigation.

Consider a Sherman infringement suit that Oasis Research LLC brought against a gaggle of Web storage companies, including EMC Corp. and Iron Mountain, back in August 2010. U.S. Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant declined to sever Oasis’ claims in May 2011, before the Federal Circuit forced him to reconsider in May 2012. On Aug. 16, Mazzant responded by agreeing to break up Oasis’s claims against the seven remaining defendants, only to consolidate the newly severed cases for all remaining pretrial issues. The judge also delayed a ruling on long-pending motions by the defendants to transfer the claims against them out of the state.