“Forum shopping in patent litigation is over.” Patent lawyer Shawn Hansen quoted in the New York Times, May 22, 2016

Patent trolls like T-Rex like to shop venue to find the court which will be friendliest to them.  40% of all patent cases get filed in a single East Texas Court with a reputation for friendliness to trolls. Insider reviewed 46 T-Rex digital billboard cases and found that 27 of the cases were filed in East Texas or Northern Illinois District Courts.  That’s about to change.  In TC Heartland v Kraft Foods the Supreme Court just ruled that patent case defendants must be sued in the judicial district where they reside instead of any district in which they do business.

Insider’s take:  If T-Rex wants to sue a billboard company or sign maker it’s going to have to file suit in the district in which the billboard company or sign maker resides as opposed to dragging defendants to East Texas.  This means higher legal costs, less friendly judges and hopefully fewer T-Rex lawsuits claiming violations of digital billboard patents.

For more info see Sixteen:Nine and The New York Times.  You can read the Supreme Court Ruling here.

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