The spring of 2017 saw two significant developments in patent litigation. The first was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland dramatically narrowing the scope of permissible venue in patent cases to require in most cases that a defendant have facilities in the forum. The other was the decision by Texas’ senators to nominate Austin lawyer Alan D Albright for a vacancy in the Waco Division of the Western District of Texas.
While TC Heartland acted to constrain patent filings in the Eastern District of Texas, this was not the case in the Western District of Texas because of the substantial operations by large tech defendants in the “Silicon Hills”. For example, Apple is constructing a massive $1 billion campus in Northwest Austin, Google is building a 35-story office tower in downtown Austin, and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, signed the largest ever lease in downtown Austin by reserving almost three dozen floors in a downtown office building. Accordingly, patent filings in the district began to rise, comprising approximately 25% of new patent case filings nationwide by the end of 2021.
This content has been archived.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]