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While the result may seem inevitable to many of you, it is especially gratifying that it came from the Eastern District of Texas. Judge Leonard Davis, who rende

by yardie 14y ago

While the result may seem inevitable to many of you, it is especially gratifying that it came from the Eastern District of Texas. Judge Leonard Davis, who rendered this opinion, probably handles as many patent infringement actions as any district court judge in the country. While he didn't enter his judicial career with any particular knowledge of patent law, over the years he has developed a keen sense of the limits of patentability, and this Uniloc patent was over the top. While we may all like to make fun of the Eastern District Court it really is the best place to be for patent lawsuits. Yes, their early cases were ridiculous but they've had a decade to build up expertise in patent cases. They have an entire legal community down there that specializes in this stuff and a pool of jurors who are familiar with software patents also. You either go there and take your chances with a panel of jurors familiar with patent law. Or, take it to another district and hope you get 6-12 jurors who don't know shit about patents but like your idea better.

mark-r 14y ago
But aren't you also fighting many years of bad precedents in that district?
- yardie 14y ago
  Yes, but the decisions have been made and the repercussions played out. Outside of the 9th district, I believe those decisions would have ended the same way. The plaintiffs want the jury pool to be not too technically literate. Well, that basically excludes the 1st and 9th districts. Think about who the jurors are? People who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. Now there are so many patent lawsuits going on down there it's hard not to be on the jury and not be involved in a few cases. So the jurors get experience. Maybe the first dozen cases were decided poorly but the jurors are getting trained (unfortunate for the defendants in earlier cases) in how to decide patent law. Have you noticed the decisions coming out have been more fairly decided. It's not enough anymore to just to take a patent case to Texas and assume it's going to be rubber-stamped.
  - ScottBurson 14y ago
    It's not enough anymore to just to take a patent case to Texas and assume it's going to be rubber-stamped. Good to hear, if true. I wonder how much it has to do with having been called a "renegade jurisdiction" by Scalia himself. I would hope that would have given them pause.

by yardie 14y ago

mark-r 14y ago

But aren't you also fighting many years of bad precedents in that district?

yardie 14y ago
Yes, but the decisions have been made and the repercussions played out. Outside of the 9th district, I believe those decisions would have ended the same way. The plaintiffs want the jury pool to be not too technically literate. Well, that basically excludes the 1st and 9th districts. Think about who the jurors are? People who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. Now there are so many patent lawsuits going on down there it's hard not to be on the jury and not be involved in a few cases. So the jurors get experience. Maybe the first dozen cases were decided poorly but the jurors are getting trained (unfortunate for the defendants in earlier cases) in how to decide patent law. Have you noticed the decisions coming out have been more fairly decided. It's not enough anymore to just to take a patent case to Texas and assume it's going to be rubber-stamped.
- ScottBurson 14y ago
  It's not enough anymore to just to take a patent case to Texas and assume it's going to be rubber-stamped. Good to hear, if true. I wonder how much it has to do with having been called a "renegade jurisdiction" by Scalia himself. I would hope that would have given them pause.