If things continue the way they are, we will see if Marshall has Texas sized hospitality. If you didn’t know it, the eastern court district of Texas has become a revolving door of patent litigation cases. In the world of patent infringement lawsuits, Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler have become a “fans” favorite for patent trolls and others embarking to defend their intellectual property.
And with that bit of fame, the citizens of East Texas have been cashing in on the business that comes as a result. But the sweet taste of fame can have a bad after taste. There have been some talks of reform coming to patent litigation and one of those elements of reform is the stricter standard of where a patent infringement case can be filed.
If this reform comes to past, there are two scenarios that could happen. Number one: that everybody packs up and heads out to their separate parts of the world thus leaving these towns of East Texas ghost towns.
Number two: these companies, especially those that fall under the “patent troll” label, can make permanent “fronts” in the eastern part of Texas in order to establish legitimate reason to file suit there. The first possibility would bring drastic change to the local economy of these towns based on loss of the regular business of lawyers and legal representatives.
The second possibility could actually bring more business, yet would make this beloved East Texas homesteads a place of falsehood and deception. And for those who know what the people of East Texas well, that doesn’t hold over so well.
It’s as old as time. Good versus Evil, God versus all selfishness in man, North versus South, Batman versus Joker, and East Texas versus … innovation? It shouldn’t be limited to East Texas only; rather, it should be patent infringement abuse versus innovation.
But for the today, we should look at what East Texas’ possible part is in slowing do innovation. Although patent infringement cases themselves has only grown nationally a slight margin, the number of cases happening in the towns of Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler has multiplied beyond belief.
And it is believed by some that there is an abuse of the legal system as companies are looking to profit off of patent infringement lawsuits, and this can stunt innovation and invention. This is especially true for what is being done by these so called “patent trolls”.
A “patent troll” is a company that looks to make its profit through gains earned through lawsuits versus other companies that has a product or technology that has infringed on their patent. The big catch, and what has attributed to slowing down innovation, is that many times these “patent trolls” look to buy patents off of others without any plan to manufacture the invention.
That in of itself is anti- productive, but what has further hindered the productivity is how these “trolls” as well as others have won an incredible amount of patent litigation cases. What does that have to do with innovation?
Well, either these companies have less money to invest in new technology or are hesitant to invest for fear of being targeted or even further, they don’t have the patent of an idea because one of these “patent trolls” holds it. And, unfortunately, East Texas has played it’s part based on a high rate of awarding cases to “patent trolls” and others.
A lot has been said about so called “patent trolls” creating a ruckus with their abuse of the legal system in order to gain wealth. This practice of obtaining and using held patent rights to gain financial rewards by targeting larger, successful businesses for patent infringements has been greatly looked down upon.
This victimization of large companies has woken a sleeping giant and resulted in the formation of the Coalition of Patent Fairness in order to address the abuse of patent infringement. But, as we use to say back in the day, while big companies have their one finger pointing in accusation, there are 3 more pointing back at them. It looks like the big guys are going after each other as well. In what has become a highly competitive race for the best “smartphone” the big boys are getting a little dirty.
Although patent infringement is a legitimate concern, it seems to me that Apple and Motorola are getting a little petty as each has filed lawsuit against one another for technology “copycatting”. Motorola was the first to strike after filing suit versus Apple for tech infringements concerning the iPhone, iTouch, iPad. But Apple has hit back more recently after filing for tech infringement of their touchscreen and display application versus Motorola and their Droid phone.
And based on Apples choice of Wisconsin for the filing, it looks like they mean to take care of business fast. East Texas has long been seen as the location of choice, but due to the back up of so many patent litigation cases, Wisconsin is quickly gaining recognition as the fastest docket in the nation. Despite location choice, these two companies actions versus one another looks to have taken the edge off of what can be deemed as “unethical” business done by “patent trolls”.
It’s like they say, “one bad apple can ruin the whole barrel”. This past decade has seen an increasing rise in the number of patent litigation cases taken place, which in turn has produced such things as “rocket docket” court districts like in Marshall, Texas, a call for patent reform, and the unethical business of “patent trolls”.
Patent trolls are the bad apple of patent litigation and, you would think, the potential source of ruining the current patent system. It is kind of like what is taking place with air travel and airport security this holiday season. Recently we have heard or seen protests like, “don’t touch my junk” and of scantily clad individuals entering airport security.
This has been brought on to question TSA’s methods for identifying potential terrorist threats. And due to the undesired methods of full body scans and detailed “pat downs” many are questioning whether or not to travel by air for the holidays.
And all of this is because of what a few, bad men have done through their acts of terrorism. So, the questions is, has the actions of patent trolls hurt legitimate patent litigation cases? The main damage that could be done by the “patent troll” type of cases is the possibility of the jury being swayed by the motivation of the patent troll for the lawsuit.
But, considering that their responsibility is simply to gauge whether or not the patent has been infringed, this ultimately should not affect patent infringement cases. And if the number of cases is any indication, then we can say that it has not hindered. With only a few “slow” times the past 2-3 years, patent lawsuits have continuously been on the rise. So have patent trolls hurt legitimate cases? The answer: No. I guess these apples are so bad after all?
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.
If things continue the way they are, we will see if Marshall has Texas sized hospitality. If you didn’t know it, the eastern court district of Texas has become a revolving door of patent litigation cases. In the world of patent infringement lawsuits, Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler have become a “fans” favorite for patent trolls and others embarking to defend their intellectual property.
A lot has been said about so called “patent trolls” creating a ruckus with their abuse of the legal system in order to gain wealth. This practice of obtaining and using held patent rights to gain financial rewards by targeting larger, successful businesses for patent infringements has been greatly looked down upon.
It’s like they say, “one bad apple can ruin the whole barrel”. This past decade has seen an increasing rise in the number of patent litigation cases taken place, which in turn has produced such things as “rocket docket” court districts like in Marshall, Texas, a call for patent reform, and the unethical business of “patent trolls”.