From the outset, it was unclear to what extent the Supreme Court’s recent holding in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Groups Brands LLC, 137 S. Ct. 1514 (2017), would change the landscape of patent filings in Texas—and more particularly the Eastern District of Texas. Some initial news reports following the decision claimed that the Eastern District of Texas was finished as a patent venue, while others cautioned patience and counseled against premature reports of the Eastern District’s demise.
Such uncertainty arose because TC Heartland resolved only one of the two prongs of the patent venue statute. The exclusive patent venue statue, 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), provides that “[a]ny civil action for patent infringement may be brought in the judicial district where [1] the defendant resides, or [2] where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business.” The TC Heartland decision confirmed that a corporate defendant “resides” in its state of incorporation for the purposes of patent venue. The decision, however, was silent on what constitutes a corporation’s “regular and established place of business.” So an expected wave of argument regarding the scope and boundaries of this prong began nationwide—an argument that continues to play out.
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