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EFF Asks Appeals Court To "Shut Down the Eastern District of Texas" (arstechnica.com)

Posted by timothy on from the at-least-as-a-haven-for-trolls dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have asked a federal appeals court to make big changes to the rules governing venue in patent cases. The two public interest groups are seeking to file an amicus brief (PDF) which attacks the Eastern District of Texas as being one of the "most notorious situations of forum shopping in recent history." This district has made quite a few appearances on Slashdot; this is one of my favorites.

15 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Famous Prince Charles Quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Throughout the history of civilized peoples, only the excess born of tyrants and brigands yearned for memory in abundance of 640K" -- Charles, Prince of Wales.

    1. Re: Famous Prince Charles Quote by khallow · · Score: 2

      No, I'm pretty sure Winston Churchill said that in his address in front of the Iron Curtain in 1949.

    2. Re:Famous Prince Charles Quote by PPH · · Score: 4, Informative

      "The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can not always depend on their authenticity." -Abraham Lincoln

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Not just Texas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The whole justice system should be shut down. It's pretty redundant anyway since the outcome is given by the amount of money spent.

    1. Re:Not just Texas by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When I was in Texas 2 decades ago, there was a study:
      So Texas Judges stand for election - they have to have a reelection fund. They only people willing to pay for a judge to be elected are lawyers who regularly appear before the judge. The study showed that the lawyer that donated the most money to the judges reelection campaign won cases a significant amount of the time.
      I always assumed this was the "Polite" way of bribing the judge. Wonder how big the reelection accounts are for judges in east texas

      --
      I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
    2. Re: Not just Texas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The issue here is the federal US District Courts. In the US, federal judges are appointed for life by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The issue here is not campaign contributions. Federal judges don't have to stand for reelection. Not to say that there aren't other problems at work, but reelection campaigns and campaign contributions are not the problem.

    3. Re:Not just Texas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you want to know why the media coverage of current US presidential debates is skewed, including with biased presenters, it's because MSNBC, CNN, and other Media companies are the largest donors to Clinton's and Rubio's campaigns.

      This is apparently not only the "polite way" of bribing politicians for more Imaginary Property Rights (which Hillary has been a huge supporter of increasing), but also the way media avoids full disclosure while biasing the elections of "free" nations.

  3. Help Wanted by mrsam · · Score: 4, Funny

    Help Wanted:

    An editor who knows how to add relevant links to a posted story.

    Send your resume to Dice Holdings Inc.

    1. Re:Help Wanted by whoever57 · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not as intuitive, but if you look to the right of the headline, you will see "(arstechnica.com)". That's the link to the story. This is presumably another /. layout unimprovement.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  4. Already shutdown by DevilM · · Score: 4, Informative

    Judge Davis retired... No one is hearing patent cases anymore in the Eastern District of Texas.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re: Already shutdown by shentino · · Score: 2

      Because the DOJ answers to the same president who appointed RIAA lawyers to the DOJ?

  5. Actual article link by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

    With a few seconds editing, this could have been in the summary.

    1. Re:Actual article link by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2

      I can see it now, thank you for the pointer. It's still a basic editing error: that is a _terrible_ place to hide a link, literally under other clickable links.

  6. Re:So, yeah. by nickweller · · Score: 3, Informative

    "The remote district’s role has only increased since 2011 and the latest data reveals that the Eastern District of Texas is headed to a record year. An astonishing 1,387 patent cases were filed there in the first half of 2015. This was 44.4% of all patent cases nationwide. And almost all of this growth is fueled by patent trolls." ref

    "Recent changes to patent law have made it easier to beat patent trolls, but it hasn't made the patent hotspot of East Texas any quieter. In fact, it's been in the news more. Massive numbers of patent troll suits continue to be filed there, and the judge who hears most of them has erected barriers to defendants seeking to have their cases disposed of early. ref

  7. Full Text Worth Reading by UncleJosh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Full text (PDF) of the Amicus Brief is worth reading and not that long. Excerpts "The Eastern District has adopted certain procedural rules that benefit patent owners—particularly those with weak patents and no products—to the detriment of small innovators and those accused of infringement. These rules drive up costs to defendants and work to increase settlement pressure untethered to the merits of a particular claim for patent infringement." and "These rules, although facially neutral, give significant advantages to patent owners with minimal assets, dubious patents or infringement claims, or a goal of extracting undeserved settlements."