Marshall, Texas Continues To Be Excessively Popular For Patent Litigation

from the eastern-texas-justice dept

Tue, Oct 9th 2007 8:08am — Mike Masnick

A large part of the reason that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals was established was that lawyers filing patent litigation suits were jurisdiction shopping, choosing district courts that were considered favorable for patent lawsuits. Of course, once the new court of appeals was set up, it just shifted the jurisdiction shopping one level lower -- and patent lawyers eventually settled on a favorite place: Marshall, Texas. Word spread quickly, as the court famously sided with patent holders at a much higher rate than any other court, and they also tended to speed through trials, so patent holders could get a fast decision. In some cases, those who were sued would settle rather than deal with an almost guaranteed loss in eastern Texas. While there have been some reports recently that (perhaps as a result of all the publicity), the folks in Marshall have started to get a bit more critical when it comes to patents, it appears that patent lawyers haven't quite figured this out yet. An anonymous attorney has started tracking where patent lawsuits are being filed and has discovered that Marshall far outranks the other courts -- especially when the case is being filed by a more questionable "patent licensing" firm. The report also notes that more patent lawsuits have been filed in Marshall this year than all of last year (during which more such lawsuits were filed than the previous two years combined). It still seems fairly ridiculous that companies that have absolutely no real presence in the region can bring their lawsuits in Marshall.

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Filed Under: marshall texas, patents

10 Comments

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Danny, 9 Oct 2007 @ 8:47am

Hold on...
There's no provision in the law books for tactics like this? Assuming I wasn't a corporate lackey posing as a politician I'd start to wonder why one court out of hundreds was suddenly getting flooded with one specific type of lawsuit.
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william, 9 Oct 2007 @ 10:19am

Marshall
They seem to like this court because it is fast called the "Rocket Docket" these cases are settled in months instead of years.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1103549728998
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2007 @ 10:44am

Isn't it nice that the courts are impartial and fair. This trend to shop lawsuits would concern me more if the courts weren't so impartial.

yes, sarcasm
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Witty Nickname, 9 Oct 2007 @ 10:55am

Marshall
I lived in Marshall for four years while I attended college there. It is important to note that there is more to Marshall than patent judges, it is also home to racists, high crime, idiots (guess that would fall under racists huh?) and the Festival of Lights!
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Willem, 12 Oct 2007 @ 7:59am

Re: Marshall
Well to be fair, i don't think idiots wouldn't fall under racists, not all idiots are racist, some just voted for Bush (who also comes from Texas?), all racist are idiots though, so it would be the other way around ;)
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Rob, 14 Oct 2007 @ 7:03pm

The problem is with how we can argue a patent!
1)Did you know that the only way to reverse a patent is to violate the patent and go to court?

2)THe US is the only country in the world that does not allow for a second patent review even if proir art is present!

3) If you think I'm lieing look a procter and Gambel(P&G) patent for Niacinnamide. P&G has patented water. And they are suing companies on this basis.

THe patent reviewers are the real idiots!
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Tom, 2 Dec 2007 @ 6:11am

Re: The problem is with how we can argue a patent!
Not true--there is a process called re-examination where you can challenge a patent at the USPTO after it has issued provided the challenge is based on prior art that the USPTO was not aware of when they issued the patent.
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Jason, 20 Jun 2008 @ 10:32pm

Re: Marshall
Hey, Witty Nickname,I went to college in Marshall, too. You wouldn't happen to also be a graduate of...Wal-Mart?

I can attest to the idiots and the racists. Actually one of my profs there said there was an honest-to-goodness lynching once on that big tree over by the "light on the hill."
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Jason, 20 Jun 2008 @ 10:34pm

Re: Re: Marshall
Ah yes, it was Marshall in fact where I met (then) Gov. Bush while he was running for re-election.
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Gretchen, 20 Jan 2009 @ 10:31pm

this is 2009
freaks...
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