Sue or Be Sued, That May Be the Question: Venue Consequences of Pre-Litigation Patent Communications

摘要

Several months ago, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in Trimble Inc. v. PerDiemCo LLC that patent owners can, under certain circumstances, be subject to personal jurisdiction merely by sending communications to an accused infringer within the forum. Prior to this, the Federal Circuit's 1998 decision in Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc. , was understood to stand for the proposition that the mere sending of notice letters alone to an alleged infringer is insufficient to satisfy the requirements of due process in declaratory judgment actions. Indeed, the Federal Circuit in Red Wing plainly stated that "cease-and-desist letters alone do not suffice to justify personal jurisdiction."