Happy Federal Rules Amendments Day

If there was an advent calendar for federal civil litigators—and why would there be—opening the window on December 1, 2015, would reveal a brand–new—or, at least, significantly amended—set of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. We’ve previewed the key amendments most immediately relevant to patent litigation—in with a new discovery regime in which discovery must be...

Digital Downloads Aren’t “Articles”; New Rules For Alice In East Texas

A couple more newsworthy items to report on this week: * In a closely watched case in the Federal Circuit, a split panel of that court has held that the International Trade Commission does not have jurisdiction to protect against alleged patent infringement based on “importation” by digital download. Over a vigorous dissent from Judge...

Do New Federal Rules Mean Death for Local Patent Rules?

In the spirit of the holiday season, December 1, 2015, will bring a gift to litigators in the form of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Before snoozing off at the mere mention of rules, if you are someone who has ever been sued for patent infringement, give some thought to the potential...

Eastern District of Texas Stands Alone As Venue For Patent Lawsuits

It is no secret that patent litigation has been concentrated in less than a handful of the 90–plus federal judicial districts in the United States for a number of years. In 2012—after the America Invents Act put in place the current rule that a plaintiff cannot sue unrelated defendants for infringing the same patent in...

Alice Strikes Twice In East Texas

As a follow–up to yesterday’s post, we note that Judge Schroeder of the Eastern District of Texas also granted a motion for judgment on the pleadings under Alice v. CLS Bank on September 21. While two decisions do not a trend make, two decisions in one day send some kind of signal that Alice motions...

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...

Letter Request Requirement in East Texas Takes An Absurdist Turn

We’ve written before about the unique requirement some judges in the Eastern District of Texas impose on accused infringers, requiring them to obtain leave of court before filing a motion testing the patent–eligibility of an asserted patent under Alice v. CLS Bank. This requirement makes it harder for accused infringers to get a dispositive issue...

Patent Litigation Doing Just Fine, Especially In Texas

After several years of steady increase in the number of new patent lawsuits filed, 2014 saw a notable decline in the number of new patent suits from 6,082 in 2013 to 5,012 in 2014. Some, such as Gene Quinn of IP Watchdog, saw this 1,000–case decline as evidence that the patent reform enacted in 2011...

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...

No Welcome Mat for Alice in East Texas After All?

A month ago, we highlighted the case of Clear With Computers v. Volvo Construction Equipment, in which Judge Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas granted a defense motion to dismiss for lack of patentable subject matter. We saw the application of Alice v. CLS Bank in a ruling on an early dispositive motion in...