Over the past three years, patent filings in the Eastern District of Texas grew steadily while patent filings in the Northern District of California and the District of Delaware dropped. In fact, in the past year, over 34 percent of the patent suits against companies located in northern California were brought in E.D. Tex.

With the U.S. Supreme Court's May decision in TC Heartland, all signs point to significant change. Already-pending cases have, and will continue to, transfer out of E.D. Tex. to N.D. Cal. New filings against those same companies or similarly located companies have been, and will continue to be, brought in N.D. Cal., not E.D. Tex. And similar trends apply to Delaware companies: Delaware companies are once again being sued in Delaware. Both N.D. Cal. and D. Del. will get busier, and lawyers familiar with those districts will once again be in high demand. The predictions regarding TC Heartland appear to be coming true, so prepare to book your flights to the coasts.

Where were California and Delaware companies being sued for patent infringement?

In an effort to determine the practical impact of TC Heartland, we must look at where companies were being sued. A survey of 39 Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in Silicon Valley revealed that those companies were defendants in 1,371 patent cases over the last five years. Only 16.6 percent of those cases were filed in N.D. Cal. Instead, a large percentage of cases—34.1 percent—were brought in E.D. Tex. The District of Delaware was the second preferred district with 22.8 percent of the patent cases. The remaining quarter of cases were filed in districts across the United States.

A similar survey of 55 companies headquartered and incorporated in Delaware with over $1 billion in revenue shows these companies were sued in Delaware approximately 20 percent of the time, which is less than the 32 percent of the cases filed against these companies in E.D. Tex.