Posts Tagged: "Western District of Texas"

On December 1, Judge Alan Albright, sitting in the Waco Division of the Western District of Texas, granted a preliminary injunction (PI) to Gonza LLC, finding that all four factors of the judicial test for injunctive relief favored Gonza. IPWatchdog is told it is one of only a handful of PIs Albright has issued. On July 28, 2021, Gonza LLC sued Mission Competition Fitness Equipment (MCF) in the Waco Division of the Western District of Texas. Gonza sought both injunctive relief and damages arising out of MCF’s alleged infringement of its U.S. Patent No. 11,007,405 (the ‘405 patent). Gonza asserted that it developed the subject matter of the ‘405 patent, which discloses a neck exercise device with resistance bands that can be used to improve neck capabilities, during a period of over two years. In its complaint, Gonza contended that MCF released a knock-off device that used lower quality materials, but nonetheless infringed the ‘405 patent. Gonza argued that MCF’s infringement of their ‘405 patent created a loss of goodwill, eroded the market price, and caused extreme negative consequences for Gonza’s business.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Monday continued its trend of granting mandamus directing Judge Alan Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to transfer a case to the Northern District of California. In the latest order, Google LLC petitioned the CAFC to direct Albright to transfer the case after he denied it based on the expected time to trial “despite the court itself finding that the transferee venue was otherwise more convenient,” wrote the CAFC, adding that this was a clear abuse of discretion.

In its latest rebuke of Judge Alan Albright’s approach to motions to transfer cases out of his court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on October 21 granted DISH Network’s petition for a writ of mandamus challenging the denial of its motion to transfer a case filed by Broadband iTV (BBiTV) from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.

On Friday, October 1, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ordered the latest in a series of recent grants of petitions for writ of mandamus, ordering Judge Alan Albright’s court to vacate its decision to re-transfer a case between Apple and Fintiv  from Austin, Texas back to Waco, Texas. Fintiv originally filed the case in the Waco division of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Western District of Texas in December 2018, and in September 2019 the district court granted-in-part Apple’s motion to transfer the case to Austin. The court denied Apple’s request to transfer the case to the Northern District of California, but agreed that Austin was more convenient. The trial was scheduled to begin in October 2021, but in September, the court ordered transfer back to Waco, explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic had suspended jury trials for the forseeable future.

On Friday, September 24, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) granted Juniper Networks, Inc.’s petition for a writ of mandamus directing Judge Alan Albright of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (WD of TX) to transfer six actions to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, holding that denying the motion to transfer constituted a legal error. The Federal Circuit has repeatedly granted such mandamus petitions from the WD of TX, or ordered Albright to reconsider denials of motions to transfer, in recent months.

On August 13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in In re: DISH Network L.L.C. in which the appellate court denied a petition for mandamus relief stemming from another appeal of a denial to transfer venue entered by U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas. Although the Federal Circuit avoided the entry of mandamus relief directing Judge Albright to grant Dish Network’s motion to transfer, the appellate court voiced its expectation that Judge Albright “will expeditiously reconsider this matter before resolving substantive issues” in the patent infringement suit filed by interactive TV and video-on-demand (VOD) provider Broadband iTV.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in In re Samsung today granted Samsung’s and LG’s writs of mandamus, which sought to order the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to transfer the underlying actions to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The CAFC explained that the district court erred in failing to consider pre-litigation tactics by Ikorongo Technology LLC (Ikorongo Tech) and Ikorongo Texas LLC aimed at purposely manipulating venue in the case.

On June 8, U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas signed an amended pair of standing orders regarding motions to transfer filed in patent infringement cases on his docket. The standing orders, which limit venue and jurisdictional discovery as well as require party status reports on motions to transfer, balances judicial efficiency with fairness to patent litigators in a court that has absolutely become one of, if not the, most important court in U.S. patent law today.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled on March 8 that Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright’s failure to rule on a motion to transfer by Tracfone Wireless, Inc. was “strikingly similar to circumstances from the same district court last month in SK hynix,” which the court ruled amounted to “egregious delay.” Unlike SK hynix, Inc., F. App’x 600 (Fed. Cir. 2021), where the CAFC stopped short of granting a writ of mandamus, here, the petitioner’s writ of mandamus was granted and a stay of proceedings regarding all substantive issues was ordered until a decision is rendered on the motion to transfer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled on February 1 that Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright’s handling of a motion to transfer by SK hynix “amounted to egregious delay and blatant disregard for precedent” and ordered the district court to stay all proceedings until it has issued a ruling on the transfer motion “capable of providing meaningful appellate review of the reasons for its decision.”

Anyone who is familiar with the fortunes of Waco, Texas over the past few years will recognize the remarkable transformation of the city in most every respect. This is often attributed to Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s “Fixer-Upper” fame. The legal world has its own version of a “fixer-upper” success story in Waco, and it has nothing to do with any renovation television series. With the arrival of Judge Alan D. Albright a little over two years ago, the Waco division of the Western District of Texas began its own transformation in every respect.

Judge Alan Albright’s Western District of Texas courtroom in Waco, Texas is the preferred venue for patent cases and the new patent rocket docket. Prior to Judge Albright taking the bench, patent cases filed in Waco were scarce, but since Albright taking the bench, patent cases have exploded. Through November 23, 2020, 3,863  patent cases have been filed nationwide. Of that number, nearly 791  have been filed in Judge Albright’s court.

As a jury consultant with a wide breadth of experience across the country, I am often asked about the favorability of certain venues, but I was surprised two years ago at the Eastern District of Texas (EDTX) Bench Bar conference when an attorney friend of mine quietly asked what I thought about Waco as a venue for patent cases. I nearly spit my coffee out: “Waco?  That’s a terrible idea!”  “Why?” he questioned, “Isn’t it a small town just like Marshall or Tyler?” I proceeded at length to explain why the Waco division and Western District of Texas (WDTX) is dramatically different than the Marshall division and EDTX. I simply chalked the question up to a one-off inquiry, until I was asked the same question again multiple times from other attorneys at the last EDTX Bench Bar. It was at the last EDTX conference that all the questions fell into place, when I heard about Judge Albright’s intent to prepare a new patent docket in Waco.

Our regularly published litigation report shows that, for the first quarter of 2020, just over 80% of the cases filed in West Texas were brought by NPEs, with only Delaware receiving more new patent complaints.  Delaware had 174 new cases in Q1; West Texas, 158.  Of those, 128 were brought by NPEs (including subsidiaries of aggregators like Oso IP, Fortress, IP Edge, Longhorn, Acacia, and others). That means the Western District is on pace for 600 patent cases in 2020.  

On Friday, June 15th, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in Xitronix Corporation v. KLA-Tencor Corporation. The petition for rehearing was filed by KLA-Tencor after the Federal Circuit first decided Xitronix back in February of this year, where the appellate court held that it didn’t have jurisdiction to hear an appeal in a patent case which only involved claims of monopolization under U.S. Supreme Court standards set in 1965’s Walker Process Equipment v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp.