Location
The place of suit matters a lot in civil cases. Suing at home helps the plaintiff — by keeping her costs low, giving her comfort that local judges and juries will give her fair treatment, and throwing out-of-town defendants off balance. All of that bigly boosts the plaintiff’s chances of success.
But a trio of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings promise to make plaintiffs’ home fields more like patches of weeds than acres of sweet verdance.
Continue Reading Into the Lions’ Dens
A tough clause to beat
A little over two years ago, the Supreme Court held that judges must enforce forum-choice clauses in the absence of “extraordinary” reasons “unrelated to the convenience of the parties”. Atlantic Marine Construction Co., Inc. v. United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, 134 S. Ct. 568, 580 (2013).
On the day that the 9-0 Court handed down Atlantic Marine, I wrote that it “will bring joy to firms that put [the] clauses in their contracts in hopes of making lawsuits too costly to pursue.”
Has the case borne out my forecast of joy?
Yes. Yes indeed.
Continue Reading The Value of Forum-Choice Clauses
A contract dispute over building a child-development center at Fort Hood, in central Texas, today spawned a ruling that will bring joy to firms that put forum-choice clauses in their contracts in hopes of making lawsuits too costly to pursue.
The agreement between Atlantic Marine Construction Company and J-Crew Management, Inc., stated that all disputes between the
The Eastern District of Texas got Volkwagen II and then TS Tech — a one-two punch that knocked some wind out of the venue's rep as a patent solar plexus (or should Blawgletter say omphalos?).
Today, the Federal Circuit rounded on another IP hot spot — the District of Delaware.
As it did
Patent holders that make stuff tend to dislike holders that don't. They call them patent trolls.
Blawgletter has heard that juries don't share the anger. They view patents as property and see misuse of it as bad, even if the owners bought patents solely to extract licensing fees and, if necessary, to sue for infringement.
But the Federal