Tell the Senate: Pass the VENUE Act to stop patent trolls

[eridani]

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/03/tell-senate-pass-venue-act

There’s a new bill in Congress that would finally address the egregious forum shopping that dominates patent litigation. The Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016 (VENUE Act, S. 2733) would bring a modicum of fairness to a broken patent system.

Forum shopping is a phenomenon that can appear when plaintiffs get a lot of latitude over which federal district to file a case in. Some plaintiffs make their choice based not on what federal district has the strongest connection to the dispute, but rather on which court they believe they have the best chance of winning in. A canny plaintiff will exploit differences between courts in her favor—differences in how they enforce certain rules, for example, or in their track records with a type of case. As anyone knows who’s been following the patent reform debate for very long, forum shopping runs rampant in patent cases.

The VENUE Act would require the plaintiff in a patent suit to file in a district where it makes sense—for example, where the defendant’s principle place of business is; where the patent owner has a working manufacturing facility; or where the inventors of the patent live. It would also allow the parties to mutually agree to a particular district.

Cases should be litigated in courts that have a meaningful connection to the dispute, not where one side thinks it can get an advantage. The VENUE Act would make the process of determining venue more fair for both sides.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because a similar reform was introduced in the House of Representatives as part of the Innovation Act, a more comprehensive patent litigation reform package. It’s disappointing to see the Innovation Act stalled, but in the meantime, let’s tell the Senate to make the VENUE Act a top priority.