Patent suits in Eastern Texas fall after TC Heartland: Lex Machina
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas’s share of patent suits dropped in the second quarter of 2017, in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland v Kraft Foods.
According to legal analytics firm Lex Machina, the number of cases filed “significantly declined” in Eastern Texas to 26% (293 cases) in the quarter, compared with 37% (474 cases) in the second quarter of 2016.
Before the TC Heartland decision, in the first quarter of 2017, the district had 32% (311 cases) of the patent suits filed.
On May 22, the US Supreme Court tightened the rules on where a patent lawsuit can be filed, in an 8-0 ruling described as “seismic”.
Background on the dispute between TC Heartland, an Indiana-based company that creates water enhancers, and Kraft Foods, a multinational food and beverage organisation, can be found here.
The primary beneficiary of Eastern Texas’s decline in share seems to be the US District Court for the District of Delaware.
In the second quarter of 2017, Delaware held 19% (215 cases) of the share, compared with 10% (134 cases) in the same quarter of the prior year.
According to Unified Patents, an organisation with the goal of reducing the number of non-practising entity assertions, the Supreme Court’s decision could drive a 70% drop in patent filings in the Eastern District of Texas.
The district may see a decrease of 1,000 new cases next year, although it would still make the district the second-most popular venue, said the organisation.
Overall, 1,138 patent cases were filed in the second quarter of 2017, an 18% increase over the number in the first quarter of the year.
This follows the trend of similar increases from the first to second quarter, which has occurred in each of the previous four years.
At the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the second quarter of 2017 was significantly quieter than any other since the first quarter of 2014.
This was preceded by a record high number of inter partes review (IPR) petitions (548) filed at the PTAB in the first quarter of 2017.
“This crest/trough may be related to the Supreme Court’s granting of certiorari in Oil States Energy v Greene’s Energy in June 2017—a case in which petitioners argue that IPR is unconstitutional, as a non-article III forum extinguishing a property right without a trial by jury,” said Lex Machina.
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