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Venue Roundup #1 - HTI IP v. Xirgo - case transferred to California

By Michael C. Smith

HTI IP v. Xirgo, 6:09cv370 (8/4/10)

Judge: Leonard Davis

Holding Motion to Transfer Venue GRANTED

In recent months I have been busy both with trial on the one hand, and with getting our new offices downtown up and running, and as a result have been behind posting of recent cases of interest.  But with the impending Oct. 1 due date (it is still September, right?) for another paper on recent developments in patent venue, I am revisiting some recent major cases on venue in enough detail to post on them as well as add them to the paper.  And this is the first.

In HTI Judge Davis was confronted with a case in which the parties were located throughout the country (and Canada) with with a general concentration on the West Coast.  One of the defendants, Xirgo, moved for transfer to the Southern District of California, and two other defendants joined.  Judge Davis' opinions spends a full five pages providing a precis on the current state of the law as to the various factors, then a sixth of personal jurisdiction issues before turning to the facts of the case. Significantly, the analysis proper is just over two paragraphs, ending with the statement that "While the Eastern District of Texas may be a central location for all the parties, the Court?s convenience as a centralized location cannot overcome its very limited connection to this case."  In this case, while there were documents and witnesses widely distributed, the connections were no more than "scant", while the Southern District of California was home to one defendant, and neighbor to the home of another.  Accordingly, the Court held that transfer was justified.

 

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on October 18, 2010 (boomark / email).