Class Arbitration and Other Risks: Are You Protected?

More companies, large and small, are including arbitration clauses in their consumer agreements, including clauses that seek to bar class arbitration.  Such clauses may be easier said than done, and there remain traps for the unwary.

TC Heartland Venue Argument Was Not “Available” Before TC Heartland Opinion Issued

In this week’s episode of Patent Venue, when is a change in the law a change in the law? On May 22, 2017, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in TC Heartland, reversing the Federal Circuit and reaffirming that a corporate defendant can only be sued for patent infringement either in its state of residence...

FTC Issues Long–Awaited Patent Troll Study

The Federal Trade Commission today announced the publication of its formal study of the problem of patent trolls—which the Commission more politely refers to as “patent assertion entities” or “PAEs.” Using its investigative authority, the Commission examined non–public information for 2009–2014 from 22 PAEs, 327 PAE affiliates, and 2,100 holding entities. The FTC divided the...

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...

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...

Farewell, Fed. R. Civ. P. Form 18

This is not the first, but we do hope it’s the last, time we’ll speak about Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. That is the ancient form complaint of patent infringement—it pre–dates WWII—that has allowed plaintiffs to file lawsuits against accused infringers without really having to say much of anything other than,...

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...

Hidden Litigation Costs Uncovered, Recovered

Tucked away in 28 U.S.C. § 1920 is a provision allowing the prevailing party to be awarded litigation costs including “[f]ees for exemplification and the costs of making copies of any materials where the copies are necessarily obtained for use in the case.” Making copies has traditionally meant just that – the costs of photocopying. But,...

Form Reform Moves Forward

Way back in 2012, we highlighted the problems caused by Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides a sample complaint for use in filing a patent infringement case. The main problem? The bare–bones form requires a patent–asserter to provide virtually no information about its claims to the defendant. And, under Federal...