EFF Backs Petition for Supreme Court Review of Patent Suit Venue Statute

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it supports liquid sweetener company Heartland Food Products Group's petition to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari seeking a review of 28 U.S.C. Section 1400(b), which requires a plaintiff to bring a patent infringement lawsuit only in a U.S. District Court where the defendant resides or where the defendant has an “established place of business.” Heartland is seeking a high court review of an April Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands against Heartland's push for stronger limits on patent suit venues. The Federal Circuit since 1990 has said Section 1400 “means that companies that sold products nationwide can be sued in any federal court in the country on charges of patent infringement, regardless of how tenuous the connection to that court,” said EFF Staff Attorney Vera Ranieri in a Thursday blog post. Ranieri said the FTC report on its study of the business practices of patent assertion entities found 53 percent of lawsuits by entities in the study occurred in the U.S. District Court based out of Tyler, Texas (see 1610060045). Unbridled venue rules have “led to a remarkable situation of forum shopping in patent cases,” EFF and Public Knowledge said in a joint amicus brief. “Even more remarkably, evidence suggests that this arrangement may be drawing courts into competition to attract patent owners -- the ones with unilateral choice over forum -- by adopting practices and procedures favorable to patent owners.” Forum shopping “has tangible, substantive effects on outcomes, a result contrary to principles of law and contrary to the very existence of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, an institution designed to eliminate a perceived problem with forum shopping for favorable substantive patent law,” EFF and PK said. HP, Oracle and 30 other companies also are jointly backing Heartland's petition to the Supreme Court.