I haven’t been deliberately ignoring the final story of the DD vs. Toys R Us. I’ve just been too busy to sit down and write a follow up article until now. Our city’s current boiling controversy involving the Double D Ranch is, at least for now, settled. Judge Christi Kennedy, found in favor of the plaintiff, Toys R Us, and ruled that the corporation that owned El Chico was violating its lease when it converted the restaurant to the Double D Ranch; by employing a “semi nude,” “scantily clad” wait staff. The injunction put in place last month which barred “The Ranch” for advertising or employing its staff in their famous uniforms was upheld last week. No further changes to the premises are allowed without the consent of Toys R Us, but the restaurant is not prohibited from opening under any other name, provided it keeps with the rules of the injunction.
Now I have to concede, that it seems unwise for the restaurant’s owners to invest the money and time into reconstructing a building that may or may not be able to actually open in a town as conservative as Tyler. Had their lease been airtight I’d be the first to support their right to open regardless of the fact that I find their theme to be tacky and generally tasteless. That being said I hardly think the term “Semi- nude” really applies here. Scantily clad maybe, but even that is kind of nebulous. According to the reports I read, a trial will be held in November to determine the final word on the issue. However, with the injunction having been upheld thus far I don’t see anything changing over the next few months. I suspect what remains, is simply the groups involved, attempting to wrangle up any lost revenue. I could be wrong but I’ll be surprised if the case is overturned at this point. Readers who have any more info on the coming trial are invited to share it in the comments section. I’d be curious to know what remains to be decided. That being said, I strongly suspect that Tyler’s Double D Ranch idea is headed for the last round- up.
When it comes to our modern day society, almost, everything is about speed. We have created a way to do all things in our life faster. We are what you can call an “instant” culture, we want everything instantly.
From communication, to appliances, to services, to health, to economy, it is all about happening the fastest way possible. Well, now we can include patent litigation. A buzz word you might have heard being used in the legal world is the word “rocket docket”.
When you’ve put an over-night mail label on a court case than you have what they call a “rocket docket”. And when it comes to patent infringement lawsuit that is what the plaintiff is looking for.
This is especially true for the so named “patent trolls” whose whole lively hood is based on patent infringement lawsuits coming from their unmanufactured patents. It seems there is a competition to see who can create the best “rocket docket” in the nation.
At court houses in places like western Wisconsin, Virginia, and east Texas, judges have taken on different practices in order to speed up the litigation process. In one location the judges start as early as 6:30am and can wait as long as 2:30pm before they let court out for lunch.
In another, the judge issues a time limit for council to share, going as far as having a chess clock available to abruptly stop the council when time is up.
Whatever method it might be these court districts have successfully found a way to speed up the process as patent infringement cases have been shortened in some places to as little as 6 ½ months compared to the nationally average of 3-5 years. Well, it looks like the “instant” culture has made its stamp once again.
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.
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 it comes to our modern day society, almost, everything is about speed. We have created a way to do all things in our life faster. We are what you can call an “instant” culture, we want everything instantly.
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.
Has Tyler Heard the Last of the Double D?
August 30th, 2011I haven’t been deliberately ignoring the final story of the DD vs. Toys R Us. I’ve just been too busy to sit down and write a follow up article until now. Our city’s current boiling controversy involving the Double D Ranch is, at least for now, settled. Judge Christi Kennedy, found in favor of the plaintiff, Toys R Us, and ruled that the corporation that owned El Chico was violating its lease when it converted the restaurant to the Double D Ranch; by employing a “semi nude,” “scantily clad” wait staff. The injunction put in place last month which barred “The Ranch” for advertising or employing its staff in their famous uniforms was upheld last week. No further changes to the premises are allowed without the consent of Toys R Us, but the restaurant is not prohibited from opening under any other name, provided it keeps with the rules of the injunction.
Now I have to concede, that it seems unwise for the restaurant’s owners to invest the money and time into reconstructing a building that may or may not be able to actually open in a town as conservative as Tyler. Had their lease been airtight I’d be the first to support their right to open regardless of the fact that I find their theme to be tacky and generally tasteless. That being said I hardly think the term “Semi- nude” really applies here. Scantily clad maybe, but even that is kind of nebulous. According to the reports I read, a trial will be held in November to determine the final word on the issue. However, with the injunction having been upheld thus far I don’t see anything changing over the next few months. I suspect what remains, is simply the groups involved, attempting to wrangle up any lost revenue. I could be wrong but I’ll be surprised if the case is overturned at this point. Readers who have any more info on the coming trial are invited to share it in the comments section. I’d be curious to know what remains to be decided. That being said, I strongly suspect that Tyler’s Double D Ranch idea is headed for the last round- up.
Tags: Advertising, Comments Section, Controversy, Dd, Double D Ranch, Final Word, Groups, Injunction, Invest Money, Plaintiff, Point Readers, Premises, Toys R Us, Tyler Texas, Uniforms
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