How many times have we seen it? Whether it is dealing with national policies, professional sports, or your local civil service, so many times we try to make decisions to take care of the symptoms rather than the core issue itself.
There are numerous examples we see on our daily news where a rash decision was made by any of the three aforementioned examples listed above that was more about put out a fire than about resolving a problem.
So, when it comes to curing the illness of patent infringement abuse and its spawn, “patent trolls” let’s not risk putting out the fire and deal with grass root issues. And what can be more grass roots of patent infringement than the handing out of patents itself.
Patent licensing in the United States is as old as invention itself in our great nation and we have quite the history for invention and innovation. Think about names like Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison. But, that doesn’t mean its ok to use the same system.
Seriously, although it’s not that old, our patent licensing system is way too out dated for the fast moving world of technology innovation that is taking place now. Don’t get the wrong idea; we have hard working men and women who deal the issuing of invention patents.
It’s not their fault that the current system hasn’t been looked at in 50 years, or that they haven’t be trained sufficiently to identify rightful licensing, or even that not all the right resources are available to them. No, it’s not their fault, the fault for that once again goes to the government.
Either way, in order to see real change come, a bulldozer has to be taken to the building and a new foundation needs to be laid.
East Texas has become a revolving door of fast money. Well, at least parts of it. In the past 5 years Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler have become mighty popular spots for patent lawyers and the big money companies they represent. This is due mostly to favorable circumstances for plaintiffs of patent infringements in the court houses of these three East Texas towns.
Once word got out of a higher win rate for those making claim of patent infringement, companies began arriving to process their cases in these court districts. This is especially true for companies who carry the “patent troll” label. These are companies whose sole means of business is to bring suit versus companies whose product or service infringes on patents that the “trolls” have bought. Since 2006 over 200+ cases per year come to East Texas.
And with each case come a handful of lawyers and representatives who need shelter, food, and a place to work in. Anyone who knows about these 3 towns knows that these are no booming metropolis’ who are accustomed to this sudden influx of business. These are towns where the slightest increase of visitors can completely change the local economy.
The nature of the type of business these teams of lawyers bring deals more with the short term picture rather than long term. Providing lodging, establishments to eat, and office space has become the main focus. Already established motels and local restaurants have already benefitted and others are looking to cash in. Unfortunately, relying on these circumstances for your economic future is like building on sand, at any moment it can all crumble. East Texas, you have a target on your back.
This past March a bill for patent infringement reform was submitted by Senators. In this bill there was one element that theoretically said “East Texas, We’re coming for you!” That element was a little thing called “forum shopping”. The rapid growth of patent litigation cases taking place in places like Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler the past few years has drawn some attention to the, usually, relaxed atmosphere of East Texas.
As some politicians have gotten themselves involved with slowing down the abuse that is taking place in patent infringement lawsuits by what they call “patent trolls” they have adopted a strategy that, inadvertently, has targeted the eastern part of Texas.
“Forum shopping” is when plaintiffs, or the one’s doing the suing, pick out a court district that is found to be favorable to their type of case. And it’s no secret that these 3 east Texas towns, especially Marshall, have a high percentage of deciding for plaintiffs of patent infringement cases as well as handing out large compensation.
As the law stands now, patent litigation can take place anywhere in the United States that the product or technology in question has been sold. So, when it comes to the big companies that are usually targeted for patent infringement suits, like Nintendo for example, the case can be held in any part of the States.
And, of course, these plaintiffs have chosen favorable court districts. It is no fault of the people of these towns that they have become known to decide for plaintiffs, they just do their duty and go home. But one thing is taking place for sure. East Texas, your being called out.
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”.
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.
Recently in the United States, there has been a huge surge in intellectual property rights cases as patent trolling becomes more and more popular. Some areas such as East Texas are well known for being a haven for these cases due to the fact that those judges and juries have a long history of awarding large monetary compensations to patent trolls when copyright infringement cases are brought against large companies. Still, no matter what part of the country you are in, there are many more copyright infringement cases brought forth by patent trolls looking to make a quick lump sum than those that are filed by inventors looking to protect their idea or product.
The way that our legal system is set up allows for complete abuse by patent trolls, and it has proven quite lucrative. For one, United States patent law is arranged so that the patent holder doesn’t even have to produce the product in question to be able to sue for copyright infringement. Because of this, patent trolls can buy patents for cheap and simply use them to barter with big companies with no intention at all of ever using the patents to produce a product or other tangible object.
While there are many happy patent trolls out there, there are also plenty of people against the abuse of the legal system. There has been plenty of talk of the need for patent reform, but nothing has changed so far. For now, the playing field is wide open to patent trolls.
How many times have we seen it? Whether it is dealing with national policies, professional sports, or your local civil service, so many times we try to make decisions to take care of the symptoms rather than the core issue itself.
East Texas has become a revolving door of fast money. Well, at least parts of it. In the past 5 years Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler have become mighty popular spots for patent lawyers and the big money companies they represent. This is due mostly to favorable circumstances for plaintiffs of patent infringements in the court houses of these three East Texas towns.
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.