J. Crew Wins Summary Affirmance In Patent Dispute With Intellectual Ventures

On November 20, 2017, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals summarily affirmed the invalidity of two patents asserted against J. Crew by Intellectual Ventures without opinion, just two weeks after hearing oral argument from Partner David Swetnam–Burland. In August 2016, Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas granted J. Crew’s motion to dismiss...

“Place of Business” Means Place of Business, Says Federal Circuit

Previously, on Patent Venue: May 22, 2017: The Supreme Court issues its opinion in TC Heartland, returning to the rule of law that a corporate defendant can only be sued for patent infringement either in its state of residence or a judicial district in which alleged acts of infringement have occurred and the business has...

Texas Welcomes TC Heartland

What does the Supreme Court opinion in TC Heartland mean for the business of patent litigation in Texas—particularly the Eastern District of Texas? On first read, TC Heartland seemed to herald the end of the kind of forum–shopping that enabled the Eastern District of Texas to land 40% of all newly filed patent cases. The...

TC Heartland: A View from the (Supreme) Courtroom

Having led the team that filed an amicus curiae brief for 48 Internet companies, retailers, and associations in support of TC Heartland, Peter Brann attended the oral argument in TC Heartland v. Kraft at the Supreme Court yesterday. Though not a disinterested observer, he offers these thoughts on what he saw: Although the venue question presented...

Wall Street Journal Quotes Peter Brann On Impact Of Major Supreme Court Patent Case

In a March 23, 2017, article, the Wall Street Journal quotes Partner Peter Brann on the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in a major patent case, TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands. The case, which is scheduled for oral argument on Monday, March 27, 2017, has the potential to put a stop...

What Happens In East Texas Definitely Doesn’t Stay There

This week has witnessed once again the oversized impact the Eastern District of Texas has in patent litigation—after all, that district was home to 44.2% of all patent cases filed in 2015 and 35.4% of all patent cases filed in 2016, with Judge Rodney Gilstrap presiding over an astounding one–quarter of all patent cases filed...

East Texas Court Orders Stay Pending Inter Partes Review

Sometimes, the straightforward application of the law has the power to surprise. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a process in place, called inter partes review, through which accused infringers can challenge the validity of patents asserted against them in litigation. Inter partes review is an adversary proceeding with a binding effect on...

A Rare Sight: East Texas Judge Grants Motion to Dismiss Patent Infringement Suit

The data are in. As we’ve previously discussed, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas outstrips all others for patent infringement litigation, with approximately 40% of all recent cases filed in that one court. The reasons plaintiffs—especially patent trolls—favor this district have been studied. Most recently, in an August 2015 article, “Forum...

Timing Is Everything: Alice in East Texas (Again)

Well, we warned you that Alice v. CLS Bank was going to remain a hot topic in 2016. Two more data points to support that theory have emerged, each of which, in a different way, relates to the proper timing of a judicial decision on the legal question of whether a patent’s claims are written...

New Year’s Grab Bag: Old Topics and Young Lawyers

Welcome to 2016! By all accounts, 2015 was a banner year: For patent litigation—the second–highest number of patent lawsuits ever were filed in 2015 (just behind 2013); For patent trolls, which accounted for two–thirds of those new lawsuits, up from 2014; And for the Eastern District of Texas, in which 44% of all new patent...