The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has, in the past decade, become a favorite forum for plaintiffs in patent infringement litigation. In 2002, 31 patent infringement suits were filed in the Eastern District of Texas but by 2008, 300 such suits were filed, more than in either the Central or Northern District of California, which for many years had been the leading venues for patent cases, primarily because one or more of the parties were headquartered there. From 2002-2008 those high-tech corporations, as well as companies and financial institutions throughout the world, increasingly found themselves being sued in the Eastern District, quite often in multi-defendant litigation brought by non-practicing patent owners.
There were several reasons for the explosion of patent litigation in the unlikely venue of the Eastern District of Texas, including a once speedy docket and a past reputation for being patent plaintiff friendly (e.g., for a number of years no E.D. Tex. jury had found a patent to be invalid). The district court also earned a reputation for denial of venue transfer motions by corporate defendants who were headquartered far from eastern Texas.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
