Change of Venue in Light of In Re Apple

In In re Apple, the United States Court of Appealsmandamus for change of venue because the
for the Federal Circuit was asked to issue a writ ofdefendants had failed to establish why their choice of
mandamus requiring the Eastern District Court offorum, in this case the District of Massachusetts, was
Texas to transfer a patent litigation case to theclearly more convenient than the Eastern District of
more convenient venue of the District Court ofTexas.
Massachusetts. The Eastern District of Texas hadWhile this decision gives patent litigation defendants
previously denied the motion to transfer because itattempting to transfer a case out of the Eastern
found that that Texas had a local interest inDistrict of Texas a victory, it does not completely
adjudicating the case because the plaintiff was aopen the doors to the defendants to change the
Texas corporation. The Court of Appeals disagreedvenue. A plaintiff can no longer establish a local
and found that the plaintiffs designation as a Texasinterest in adjudicating a case in the Eastern District
corporation was "not entitled to significant weight"of Texas simply by forming a Texas corporation and
because the corporations presence there was recentthen transferring their intellectual property interests
and ephemeral. The plaintiff had formed as ato that corporation. However, a defendant, likewise,
corporation in Texas just two months before thecannot transfer the case to any other district where
action was filed, did not have any employees inthe case could have originally been brought without
Texas, and was using as its address the office of itsclearly establishing that the other district is a more
Texas litigation counsel. However, the Court ofconvenient forum.
Appeals ultimately denied the motion for a writ of