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Why was the East Texas circuit so popular and why was it so in favor of patent-holders?

dragonwriter 9y ago
A fairly decent rundown (2016): https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3pp/the-small-town-judge-who-sees-a-quarter-of-the-nations-patent-cases https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3pp/the-small-...
adventured 9y ago
Based on several articles that got published over the years, investigating the district's patent practices, it was overwhelmingly plaintiff friendly. There was a judge there that was particularly infamous (at the peak he was handling 1/4 of all patent cases in the US). https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.html https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.ht... https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/05/24/east-texas-supreme-court-ruling-setback-towns-final-verdict-locals-say https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/05/24/ea...
calvinbhai 9y ago
Watch Patent Scam on Amazon Prime (or on iTunes I guess). Then you'll wonder how is this scam even tolerated! Basically, its a nexus between the judge and attorneys who have shell companies filing lawsuits against legit entrepreneurs and medium sized companies. The East Texas circuit is so remote that just going there is a pain. Laws are such that burden of proof is on the company/person being accused in the lawsuit. That combined with the remoteness of this court, compels the accused to settle, along with an NDA that prevents them from sharing any details about the settlement.
- patentatt 9y ago
  This is somewhere between incomplete and inaccurate. The collusion aspect is far overstated, see other comments in this thread. And the idea that defendants settle because EDTX is too far away may account for some small litigants, but large companies can buy plane tickets. The real reason was a set of local rules that promoted expediency (to the point of being biased some may say), a docket not as inundated with drug cases as some other districts, a judge who was very pro patent owner, and a local jury pool comprised of people who were statistically ‘dumber’ than average and really liked patent owners. And a local cottage industry of sorts set up to support this type of litigation (shell corporation headquarters, local counsel, jury consultants, etc,) I’m not defending any of it, but it’s inaccurate to just say it was all a conspiracy
  - calvinbhai 9y ago
    They don’t the sue the bigger than certain size company exactly for that reason! Hence the lawsuit is never against Google, but against makers of successful paid apps on Google Play Store. Sure the movie borders on conspiracy / fact . But it certainly is believable for me, who has no idea how patent system or the litigation machinery works in the US.

A fairly decent rundown (2016): https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3pp/the-small-town-judge-who-sees-a-quarter-of-the-nations-patent-cases https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3pp/the-small-...

adventured 9y ago

Based on several articles that got published over the years, investigating the district's patent practices, it was overwhelmingly plaintiff friendly. There was a judge there that was particularly infamous (at the peak he was handling 1/4 of all patent cases in the US). https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.html https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.ht... https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/05/24/east-texas-supreme-court-ruling-setback-towns-final-verdict-locals-say https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/05/24/ea...

calvinbhai 9y ago

Watch Patent Scam on Amazon Prime (or on iTunes I guess). Then you'll wonder how is this scam even tolerated! Basically, its a nexus between the judge and attorneys who have shell companies filing lawsuits against legit entrepreneurs and medium sized companies. The East Texas circuit is so remote that just going there is a pain. Laws are such that burden of proof is on the company/person being accused in the lawsuit. That combined with the remoteness of this court, compels the accused to settle, along with an NDA that prevents them from sharing any details about the settlement.

patentatt 9y ago
This is somewhere between incomplete and inaccurate. The collusion aspect is far overstated, see other comments in this thread. And the idea that defendants settle because EDTX is too far away may account for some small litigants, but large companies can buy plane tickets. The real reason was a set of local rules that promoted expediency (to the point of being biased some may say), a docket not as inundated with drug cases as some other districts, a judge who was very pro patent owner, and a local jury pool comprised of people who were statistically ‘dumber’ than average and really liked patent owners. And a local cottage industry of sorts set up to support this type of litigation (shell corporation headquarters, local counsel, jury consultants, etc,) I’m not defending any of it, but it’s inaccurate to just say it was all a conspiracy
- calvinbhai 9y ago
  They don’t the sue the bigger than certain size company exactly for that reason! Hence the lawsuit is never against Google, but against makers of successful paid apps on Google Play Store. Sure the movie borders on conspiracy / fact . But it certainly is believable for me, who has no idea how patent system or the litigation machinery works in the US.