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...

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...

East Texas Judge Orders eDekka To Pay Accused Infringers’ Fees

In a closely watched case from east Texas, Judge Gilstrap has awarded attorneys’ fees to defendants who successfully moved to dismiss the claims against them because the asserted patent was drawn to patent–ineligible subject matter. As we reported in September, Judge Gilstrap granted a set of motions to dismiss under Alice v. CLS Bank, then...

Alice Bounces eDekka Patent In East Texas

The judges of the Eastern District of Texas have not been the most welcoming in the country to the early application of Alice v. CLS Bank—the Supreme Court opinion that lays out the two–step test for determining whether a patent should be voided because it claims abstract ideas, not inventions—in patent litigation. But the winds...

Justice Delayed

Courts are busy, and generally understaffed and underfunded when you consider the workload they are expected to handle. At times, that means that cases slip through the judicial cracks. That can present a thorny problem for litigants awaiting a ruling. At what point, and through what means, do you try to (gently) remind a court...

Alice Needs A Judicial Visa To Enter East Texas

East Texas continues to stand out among federal judicial districts for its (contrarian) approach to patent cases. Where the judges in other judicial districts have found the Supreme Court opinion in Alice v. CLS Bank a useful tool to use early in cases to weed out patents that shouldn’t have been granted—you can see a...