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March 25th, 2016 at 5:17 pm
Senate VENUE Act: Badly-Needed Venue Reform in Patent Litigation
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CFIF strongly favors comprehensive patent litigation reform, in particular the Innovation Act that passed by a bipartisan 325-91 House vote in the last Congress.  Venue reform constitutes one important part of that broader effort, which CFIF has also emphasized.

By way of review, current federal rules allow patent lawsuits to be filed almost anywhere, which in turn allows plaintiffs to file in districts where no defendant resides, where no substantial portion of the events in dispute occurred and where few if any relevant witnesses and evidence are situated.

As we have noted, one manifestation that of venue abuse problem is the preposterous overabundance of patent lawsuits in a single federal district – the Eastern District of Texas:

Since 2009  alone the total number of patent lawsuits in the United States has more than doubled from 2,500 to over 6,000 in 2014.  And of that total, a preposterous 44% of new patent lawsuits last year were filed in a single federal court district, the Eastern District of Texas.  Even more preposterously, one judge in that district – Rodney Gilstrap – oversees 900 cases and actually accounts for almost one-fifth of all patent lawsuits in the entire U.S.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys game the system by suing in the Eastern District of Texas for a variety of reasons, including its reluctance to allow transfer of cases to more appropriate districts, its prevalence of high ‘jackpot jury’ awards, its willingness to allow excessive document and witness discovery demands, its friendly verdict rate and its local court rules favorable to plaintiffs.  The district is so notoriously welcoming that plaintiffs create artificial connections such as bogus offices and document warehouses for the sole reason of convincing judges to keep cases there.”

Fortunately, Senators Mike Lee (R – Utah), Cory Gardner (R – Colorado) and Jeff Flake (R – Arizona) have introduced legislation to surgically pursue venue reform.

Their Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act (VENUE Act) of 2016 (S. 2733) would limit litigants’ ability to game the system and play “jackpot justice” when choosing the district in which to sue.  Stated simply, the VENUE Act would now require plaintiffs to sue in districts more appropriate for the case in question and convenient for the parties and witnesses.  No longer would plaintiffs possess almost unlimited ability to drive opposing parties to nuisance settlements by filing in faraway districts untethered to the parties or legal issues.  Instead, patent lawsuits would be litigated in districts where defendants’ principle places of business are located, where the patent holders and important witnesses reside, where the evidence is more centralized or where the more substantial portion of alleged infringements occurred.

It should be noted that the VENUE Act would still allow parties to voluntarily agree amongst themselves to a particular district, so this wouldn’t constitute a one-size-fits-all mandate.

Although comprehensive patent litigation reform remains the goal, the VENUE Act advances the ball on this issue in an important manner.  We therefore encourage our supporters and activists across the country to contact their Senators and express support for this important patent litigation venue reform bill.