Texas attorney general urges SCOTUS to stop ‘rampant’ forum-shopping

The attorney general of Texas has urged the US Supreme Court to end the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas’ hold on patent litigation.

Ken Paxton filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court on February 6 in the TC Heartland v Kraft Foods case.

The amicus brief was filed with 16 other state attorneys, including those from Arizona, Colorado, and Connecticut.

The Supreme Court granted TC Heartland’s writ of certiorari in December last year.

Kraft had sued at the US District Court for the District of Delaware. TC Heartland unsuccessfully asked the judge to transfer the case to the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

TC Heartland then appealed against the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit but, in April last year, the appeals court denied TC Heartland’s petition for a writ of mandamus.

Paxton’s brief asked the Supreme Court to reverse rulings by the Federal Circuit which have “allowed forum-shopping by patent holders who are seeking to influence the outcome of their cases with their venue choices.

“Amici write to highlight the forum-shopping enabled by the Federal Circuit’s expansion of patent venue and emphasise how the current venue system fosters nuisance litigation and impairs the judicial system’s reputation for the neutral administration of law,” said the brief.

Paxton argued that the Federal Circuit had erred in departing from the Supreme Court’s holding that 28 USC, section 1400(b) is the sole statute governing venue.

He added that plaintiffs have “largely” chosen the Eastern District of Texas, where “local practices and rules depart from national norms” in ways that are attractive for patent infringement cases.

The Federal Circuit’s expansion of patent venue, he explained, has caused “rampant” forum-shopping, which makes abusive claims of patent infringement more “potent”.

Last week, WIPR reported that the Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court asking it to end the Eastern District of Texas’ grip on patent litigation.

Intel, Dell, the American Bar Association and a number of law professors have also filed briefs in the case.

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