Published at LXer:
US federal courts are divided into 94 districts. When patent-holders file a lawsuit against a product that's sold nationwide, they have pretty wide leeway as to where to file their case. That's allowed for quite a bit of "venue shopping" in patent cases, and several years ago the remote and rural Eastern District of Texas started to become surprisingly popular.Over time, East Texas became known as a place very friendly to patent plaintiffs and unfriendly to patent defendants, particularly out-of-state or foreign tech companies. Judges there were reluctant to let cases be transferred out of their district, and some patent-holding companies began setting up Texas LLCs in order to better argue that Texas was the right venue for them.
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