High Court Patent Ruling Spurs Litigation Strategy Shift

摘要

One year after the Supreme Court changed the landscape for patent lawsuits, attorneys are adapting to a system with stricter rules for U.S. companies than ones based in other countries. The high court made it more difficult for patent owners to sue U.S. companies in plaintiffs' preferred courts. The decision changed the geography of patent litigation by moving cases away from venues with reputations for being friendly to patent holders, such as the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. By strengthening the limits on where domestic companies can be sued, the ruling in TC Heartland v. Kraft heightened longstanding differences between foreign and domestic defendants. Foreign corporations are exempt from U.S. venue laws, meaning U.S. plaintiffs can sue them for infringement in any federal court. Patent owners are trying to take advantage of the disparate treatment, especially when suing foreign corporations with U.S. subsidiaries, by only suing the foreign entity. The strategy is still relatively new, and there are still unanswered questions, such as how courts will handle lawsuits in different districts against related entities accused of infringing the same patents. Defendants can try to get cases transferred by arguing that another venue is more convenient-for example, if most of the witnesses and evidence are located in another district-but there's no guarantee of success.