CAFC Rules Telecom Companies Should Have Patent Infringement Lawsuit Closer to Home

Submitted by patentadmin on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 10:27

March 25, 2011 - TheCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has ruled that a patent lawsuit pitting AT&T, Verizon and Qwest Communications will take place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Dallas, rather than the Eastern District court in Marshall.

A lawsuit dealing with the same patent had been settled five years before in the Eastern District, giving that court some familiarity with it, but the witnesses in the present case mostly live closer to Dallas.

The CAFC's three-judge panel decided that the convenience to the witnesses outweighs the patent's history with the Eastern District.

"We deem the Eastern District's previous claim construction in a case that settled more than five years before the filing of this lawsuit to be too tenuous a reason to support denial of transfer," wrote Judge Richard Linn for the CAFC.