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I suspect this won't actually prevent lawsuits in the Eastern district. With internet shopping and the new store just across the district line, lawyers should

• giancarlostoro 8y ago
  I don't think they expect it to prevent lawsuits, I think they're making a statement.
  • S_A_P 8y ago
    agreed. Further if they can convince other tech companies not to pander to this district, they may reconsider their position. This has long been a money play by that judge/lawyers in the area.
  • sadris 8y ago
    They should make a statement to Australia and block access and sales to the entire country for their anti encryption law.
    • kstrauser 8y ago
      I think their current statement is "this is dumb and we're ignoring it".
• IOT_Apprentice 8y ago
  Should they not punish the region? The Eastern district is corrupt.
  • otterley 8y ago
    I can't see how it makes sense to punish the customers for the behavior of a Federal district judge who isn't elected by them. (The President appoints Federal judges and the Senate confirms them.)
    • thorwasdfasdf 8y ago
      At least it draws attention to the matter which helps in the long run. You need awareness of the issue, for it to make it into the public debate. Right now, most voting people don't understand the evils of patent trolling.
      • tfandango 8y ago
        And they are opening a new store very close to the existing stores, just out of the district. So people will only have 1 store to go to, but it will be pretty close. I too think this may draw some attention from people who live there who may demand a change. I'd bet that most people would care more about a convenient Apple store over some corrupt lawyers and judges making a money grab.
    • mbrameld 8y ago
      The customers elect people who can influence the president.
      • otterley 8y ago
        The damage is done, though. Federal judges are appointed for life, and only a higher Court (again, whose judges are appointed for life by the President) can overturn their judgments. There is literally nothing the customers can do to change the outcome -- even through the electoral or political process -- except by petitioning Congress to change patent law.
        • darkpuma 8y ago
          Right now this region enjoys a financial windfall from the business their corrupt judges bring in. As such, I'd expect the judges to well liked in the region. Could this be the root of their motivation? Most bipedal monkeys love social validation. If the tables turn and the judges start hurting the local economy, I'd expect them to become hated. This is all very indirect, but I think it's worth a try.
  • monochromatic 8y ago
    Oh please. The fact that you don’t like patents doesn’t mean that judges who disagree are corrupt.
    • mattnewton 8y ago
      This district is a notorious harbor for patent trolls. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-25/the-texas-town-that-patent-trolls-built-j34rlmjc https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-25/the-te... https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/patently-unfair/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/patently-unfair/ https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.html https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.ht... http://www.judicialhellholes.org/2015-2016/u-s-district-court-for-the-eastern-district-of-texas/ http://www.judicialhellholes.org/2015-2016/u-s-district-cour...
      • monochromatic 8y ago
        I’m aware that patent trolls bring a lot of cases there. That’s hardly the same as the judges being corrupt.
        • macintux 8y ago
          The steady influx of business has brought significant financial benefits to the area. It's not hard to suspect the correlation has a negative impact on the court's impartiality. In the case of Gilstrap's predecessor, there's a direct connection. > The top judge for patent cases in East Texas used to be John Ward, until he "retired" to join his son in a local law practice representing patent trolls. From https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151101/00440632686/court-has-opportunity-to-finally-end-east-texas-patent-troll-docket.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151101/00440632686/court...
    • hnbroseph 8y ago
      goodness me. i always chuckle at these kinds of reductive strawmen.
  • tomc1985 8y ago
    Oh man, imagine the riots and changes that would ensue is Amazon suddenly started blocking purchases from Eastern district residents... "well we don't want to be considered as doing business there, y'all need to fix your courts..."
    • emiliobumachar 8y ago
      For maximum effect, organize. Amazon. Google. Netflix. Apple. All boycotting and IP blocking the District. Cue cries of corporations becoming more powerful than governments.
      • stcredzero 8y ago
        Cue cries of corporations becoming more powerful than governments. That is a legitimate reason for concern. US corporations have ravaged entire countries in the past. Four of the largest US tech corporations taking coordinated action to punish a part of the US judicial system is something to be concerned about. If you're concerned about corporate lobbying, you should be at least as concerned about that. Probably more.
      • darkpuma 8y ago
        It was only a matter of time before the banana republic phenomena returned home.
      • tomc1985 8y ago
        "FANG Leaves Texas Court District In Digital Dark Age" A fun idea, never going to happen though...
  • usefulcat 8y ago
    That's almost certainly not the intent. I'm pretty sure most Americans don't know or care very much about patent abuse, so to make this 'punishment' even remotely effective Apple would have to accompany it with a significant amount of marketing to get the message across. Have you heard of anything even remotely like that coming out of Apple? I mean, I guess they still could, but it does seem a pretty un-Apple thing to do.
• skywhopper 8y ago
  The new store is really pretty close to at least one of the old ones. The risk is huge to a company like Apple so from a business POV it makes a ton of sense.
• charonn0 8y ago
  > With internet shopping and the new store just across the district line, lawyers should be able to argue that Apple is indeed doing business in the region. I'm pretty sure that's not how jurisdiction works.
  • gist 8y ago
    There are two things going on here. One is whether someone can make an argument and rope a dope out a lesser party so they win. In that case in theory a good set of lawyers might be able to argue what you are saying at least enough to get money out of a 'typical' defendant who doesn't want to fight and that it makes sense to settle. [1] But Apple is not a typical defendant. They are a large and profitable company that has near unlimited resources to fight and drag things on. A patent troll with this type of power on the other side is much more likely to move onto a 'home with no security system' than to try and fight Apple. Most trolls are not world class firms. Easier to simply pick someone else to go after. Separately one thing that I frequently see on HN is people interpreting things very exactly and literally by law or otherwise. As an example let's take someone who states that 'if you go 57 in a 55 mph you can get a speeding ticket'. Sure you could get a ticket and sure there are people have gotten tickets for going 2 mph over the limit but generally that is not something that happens. Or that you typically have to worry about. [1] After all this is the basis for much of this troll action.
  • compiler-guy 8y ago
    Up until a little while ago, it was how jurisdiction worked in the Eastern District, so it isn't (or wasn't) and unreasonable way of thinking about it. Recent Supreme Court precedent fixed this though.
• comex 8y ago
  That’s not true, thanks to recent precedent: https://www.krcl.com/articles/patently-unpredictable-patent-venue-laws-after-tc-heartland-in-re-cray/ https://www.krcl.com/articles/patently-unpredictable-patent-... > [T]he Federal Circuit in In re Cray rejected the Eastern District of Texas’ expansive four-factor test and set forth three requirements for determining whether a defendant has a “regular and established place of business” in the district: (1) there must be a physical place in the district; (2) it must be regular and established; and (3) it must be the place of the defendant.
  • sct202 8y ago
    Oh dang. There are a bunch of hardware companies with offices in the North Dallas area (ex Ericsson, Nokia); I wonder if they're thinking of moving west or south to get out of the district.
• jjulius 8y ago
  The passage below is from the short article you're commenting on: >Residency is also a factor in determining the applicable venue of a patent infringement lawsuit, but in May 2017, the Supreme Court shifted precedent by ruling that a U.S. corporation resides only in its state of incorporation. Apple is incorporated in California, not Texas, satisfying this clause.
• kevin_b_er 8y ago
  The Eastern District of Texas tried to use the movement of goods as a a nice test to upend TC Heartland, but In re Cray had the federal circuit actually reject their tests that would keep the gravy train rolling and further closed off the venue shopping into Marshall TX. Now Apple recognizes that a true physical presence is required for patent trolls to be able to use the district, and they're closing that off. The wealthy suburbanites of northern Dallas will suffer to not have luxury Apple Stores near them, but that's what happens after a decade of recognized abuse from the judicial district.