West Texas Continued to Rise in Q1 as the Federal Circuit Closed a Venue Loophole

In the first quarter of 2020, the District of Delaware remained the most popular district for patent litigation overall but fell to second place for both NPE and operating company cases. The Western District of Texas became the second-most popular district overall in Q1, up from the number-three spot in Q4 2019, while it held the top spot for NPE litigation in the first quarter. West Texas has also jumped into the top five for operating company suits, overtaking the Eastern District of Texas for fifth place in Q1.

Meanwhile, the Federal Circuit recently overturned a controversial rule from the Eastern District’s Judge Rodney Gilstrap that servers located in an ISP data center may establish venue, holding instead—in In re: Google—that a defendant’s employee or agent must be regularly present at a “place of business” for venue purposes. Courts and stakeholders had previously warned that Judge Gilstrap’s rule could expose a variety of companies reliant upon web infrastructure to risk in a wide variety of districts, with Federal Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna warning that it could reestablish “nationwide venue” post-TC Heartland. More details on that ruling can be found in RPX’s recent article.

See RPX’s first-quarter review for more information on litigation and market trends from Q1 2020.