Have you ever had one of those moments when you are watching a movie and there is a particular part that catches your attention and sticks with you until the right moment comes to apply it to your life? Well, mine is from National Treasure and this is the moment.
Remember towards the end of the movie and the good guys are being held hostage and forced to help the bad guys find the treasure? And as they are walking along held at gun point, the wise older father turns to his son, and says “You have to change the status quo.”
Well, imagine me as the wise older father and the court houses of Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler Texas as the son, “You have to change the status quo.” because your being held hostage.
This trend of money-hungry patent trolls coming to these towns must stop. There has been a status quo established in the eastern district of Texas that has helped to intensify the illegitament business of making money off of bought out patents.
This status quo includes sped up court process specifically for patent infringement and a high percentage of victory for plaintiffs of these cases. Now there is not much you can do about the jury’s findings because jury tampering is illegal.
But one thing to consider is the manner in which the judges are handling the court process of these particular cases. A set of “no nonsense” rules have been established in which lawyers are given a limit of time to present all paper work and are timed by a chess timer when presenting their case in which they are abruptly stopped if the timer goes off.
These types of things are a major part of why their courts are found so appealing for this abuse. In order for these judges to continue their commitment to the betterment of our nation they must change the status quo held in their court houses.
The Discovery Channels popular program “Myth busters” pride themselves on discovering whether or not a presupposition is correct. Well, I have a myth that needs some busting.
Is the eastern court district of Texas the best forum for patent infringement cases? Patent litigation has become more than protecting your intellectual property rights, it has become a form of business for some.
There is a genre of companies who carry the “patent troll” label based on the unethical business of obtaining patents from other businesses or firms in order to use them to collect financial rewards in patent infringement lawsuits.
Whether it’s one of these “patent troll” cases or your normal run-of-the-mill case, the plaintiff has the right to choose what “forum” or court location the case is brought to.
And throughout the patent litigation world, East Texas has become the place to go. But the question is, are the reasons why myth or reality? It has been explained that the major factors for East Texas becoming the location of choice is due to rocket docket (fast processing of patent infringement cases) and percentage of plaintiff victories.
But the truth is, in a recent investigation of patent litigation cases throughout the United States, the eastern district of Texas does not even rank in the top 5 of either one of those categories.
When it comes to “rocket docket” East Texas ranks in the bottom half and in victory percentage for plaintiffs it ranks 7th place. So is East Texas the ideal forum for patent infringement lawsuits?
When it comes to technical ranking, no it is not the best. But, just like the aging star athlete, reputation and experience can matter more, and I think that is what still makes East Texas the most popular forum.
Set the threat level at red, East Texas, because you are under attack. Knowingly or unknowingly, East Texas has been harboring, what we can call, “economic terrorists”.
The accurately named “Patent Trolls” have found an accommodating court circuit in the eastern district of Texas and now are laying siege to our American way of doing business. In the simplest of economic courses we have learned that to create wealth you must offer a product or service in demand.
The deviant strategy of the “patent troll” is to search and buy patents from bankrupt firms without any intention of manufacturing the invention. Then they target other businesses that use some simulant of the invention in order to sue them for patent infringements. This is the complete opposite of offering a service or product.
This is profiting off someone else’s service or product. One definition of terrorist is an individual who uses violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve a result. Well, I don’t know anything more terrifying than to see one man profit from another man’s work.
Or, I haven’t seen a greater intimidation tactic than how these “patent trolls” threaten with a $1million defense cost in order to encourage out of court settlements. And with these acts of terror we could see a real devastating blow to the American free market.
Just think about it, if these companies have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for settlements or litigation costs, who will suffer the most? The consumer! These companies will either hike up the cost of their products or service in order to pay said costs or they will lose desire altogether to continue producing their product or service.
So, what do you think? Is it about time to call Homeland Security?
Note: We are not saying Patent Harbor LLC is a patent troll we are just pointing out that others have said online that they are and we were seeing if some of the claims like empty offices and so forth were true. As far as we know they are a good well meaning patent owning company who is simply defending themselves against dishonest companies that have infringed upon their patents. Maybe they take long lunch breaks and work late at night.
Going on now for about 10 years the Eastern District Court of Texas has been at home handling patent litigation cases and it seems finds themselves being best fit to handle these lawsuits.
The patent holding companies are many times non practicing entities or, more bluntly, patent trolls, that have a larger chance of winning in this court than in other courts in the US. Because of the statistical odds of a defendant losing a patent infringement court case in this court the first legal option of the accused is to move for a change of venue to an unbiased federal district court.
To talk of a power trip for a court or judge this would be one of those as a plaintiff stands to receieve over $100 million dollars every few months one of these lawsuits goes to court in the Eastern District Courts.
The defendants in these cases rush to get the lawsuit changed to another court due to the belief that the Eastern District Court in Marshall Texas, Judge T. John Ward presiding, is friendly towards the plaintiffs in these cases more times than not.
Now there is nothing wrong with suing a company for infringing upon your patent but when digging under the legal jargon what the laymen would like to know is what’s really going on? What’s all the fuss?
Well many although not all of these plaintiffs suing large companies like JVC, Apple, Microsoft, and others are buying up patents on the cheap and then finding large companies that have infringed upon these patents.
Once they have a big list of companies to sue sometimes only a few weeks before filing the lawsuit they will open up an office in Tyler Texas. Sometimes the office will be in Tyler Texas or Marshall where the Eastern District Court is located.
Although the office will have employees the employees are usually rarely there and it is obvious that the office many times nothing more than a, “recent, ephemeral, and an artifact of litigation appear[ing] to exist for no other purpose than to manipulate venue.”
This description would make sense as an office with no employees simply to get the trial in a court that will side with your lawsuit seems a bit suspicious although apparently legal. Recently however the Federal Circuit Court has started to dismiss these offices and the incorporations in Texas because of the obvious manipulation of court venue.
When a defendant in the past has attempted to move the court case out of the Eastern District Court the request has frequently been denied. These denials prompt a jolt of fear into the defendants game plan resulting in many cases being settled out of court because of the denial and the disadvantages to fighting it in the Eastern District Court.
The Federal Circuit court is now seeing an obvious gaming of the legal system in these patent cases as they quote, “a classic case where the plaintiff is attempting to game the system.” in reference to the In re Zimmer court case.
If these patent companies really are attempting to game the system and stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars why don’t they take it a step further and actually have employees in these offices? You would think they would want to go out of there way to establish more of a real presence in these offices?
Future court cases being tried in the Eastern District Court are more likely to grant a change of venue to defendants who often reside outside of Texas and where the plaintiffs are usually out of state as well although “gaming the system” as the Federal Circuit Court would say.
The district court’s denial that they are being disruptive to the principles set forth in the transfer law just to handle these high profile cases is unbelievable and glaringly obvious to the average citizen. What’s up over there in Marshall Texas?
These court cases cost these innovative US companies millions of dollars as well as harm consumers who must deal with rising costs associated with these products because of patent litigation insurance that must be taken out to insure themselves against the potential of a lawsuit.
Once the Eastern District stops fighting against the Federal Circuit Courts wishes East Texas may have another problem in store. These patent holding companies can sue local technology companies in Tyler Texas that have infringed on a patent in some broad general definition of infringement.
Since the defendant company is in East Texas already there is no need to game the system regarding venue as they can just sue any of us small time local companies here in Tyler and the surrounding East Texas community. That’s when this starts to effect us.
I imagine the judge in Marshall Texas wouldn’t be seen so kindly once it starts hurting local East Texans.
When people talk about “property rights”, a common quote is “Possession is nine tenths of the law”. For example, little Johnny is playing in the dirt with a red dump truck. Charlie wants to play with the dump truck, so he tells the teacher that the dump truck belongs to him and he wants it back. The teacher replies, “Johnny brought that dump truck from home, and he’s playing with it. It’s his property, and it belongs to him.” Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?
But what happens when the item at the center of a property dispute is not something you can put your hands on, but is a creation of the mind? Intellectual property, things like inventions, novels, plays, music, drawings, trademarks, sculptures, and photographs can have more value than say, a dump truck. This is where intellectual property right laws come into play. But how do you place value on something that is intangible?
From a legal standpoint, intellectual property is divided into two categories: industrial property and copyrights, and infringement suits involving intellectual property are popping up in unlikely places these days. Lawsuits that once filled dockets in California and New York are now commonplace in East Texas, an area that is becoming known as a haven these types of property right law suits.
In intellectual property litigation, the potential for large settlement payments is huge, particularly when a tough judge is presiding. That’s why in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which is known for favoring plaintiffs and for expertise in patent and intellectual property right suits, defendants often choose to cut their losses and settle rather than fight.
The Discovery Channels popular program “Myth busters” pride themselves on discovering whether or not a presupposition is correct. Well, I have a myth that needs some busting.
Set the threat level at red, East Texas, because you are under attack. Knowingly or unknowingly, East Texas has been harboring, what we can call, “economic terrorists”.