Posts Tagged: "Judge Alan Albright"

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Monday continued its trend of granting mandamus directing Judge Alan Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to transfer a case to the Northern District of California. In the latest order, Google LLC petitioned the CAFC to direct Albright to transfer the case after he denied it based on the expected time to trial “despite the court itself finding that the transferee venue was otherwise more convenient,” wrote the CAFC, adding that this was a clear abuse of discretion.

In its latest rebuke of Judge Alan Albright’s approach to motions to transfer cases out of his court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on October 21 granted DISH Network’s petition for a writ of mandamus challenging the denial of its motion to transfer a case filed by Broadband iTV (BBiTV) from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.

On Friday, October 1, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ordered the latest in a series of recent grants of petitions for writ of mandamus, ordering Judge Alan Albright’s court to vacate its decision to re-transfer a case between Apple and Fintiv  from Austin, Texas back to Waco, Texas. Fintiv originally filed the case in the Waco division of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Western District of Texas in December 2018, and in September 2019 the district court granted-in-part Apple’s motion to transfer the case to Austin. The court denied Apple’s request to transfer the case to the Northern District of California, but agreed that Austin was more convenient. The trial was scheduled to begin in October 2021, but in September, the court ordered transfer back to Waco, explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic had suspended jury trials for the forseeable future.

While there are any number of reasons to question the continued viability, value and necessity of the Federal Circuit, the court’s continued use of mandamus is extremely troubling. Much of the time, it seems the Federal Circuit is using this extraordinary remedy to control the docket of Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas, ordering him to transfer cases. Reading these decisions is becoming nauseating. The resentment of the Federal Circuit built up toward Judge Albright is palpable, yet at the same time the Federal Circuit ignores first principles and well-established law in an attempt to move patent cases from the forum selected by the patent owner plaintiff to a forum decidedly in favor of the defendants.

On Friday, September 24, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) granted Juniper Networks, Inc.’s petition for a writ of mandamus directing Judge Alan Albright of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (WD of TX) to transfer six actions to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, holding that denying the motion to transfer constituted a legal error. The Federal Circuit has repeatedly granted such mandamus petitions from the WD of TX, or ordered Albright to reconsider denials of motions to transfer, in recent months.

Day one of IPWatchdog LIVE 2021 in Dallas, Texas, kicked off on Sunday, September 12, with a fireside chat between David Henry of sponsor Gray Reed and Judge Alan Albright of the United States’ most high-profile district patent court; panels on patent monetization and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) post-Arthrex; and IPWatchdog’s first ever Paul Michel Award, which went to David Kappos of Cravath Swaine & Moore.

On August 13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in In re: DISH Network L.L.C. in which the appellate court denied a petition for mandamus relief stemming from another appeal of a denial to transfer venue entered by U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas. Although the Federal Circuit avoided the entry of mandamus relief directing Judge Albright to grant Dish Network’s motion to transfer, the appellate court voiced its expectation that Judge Albright “will expeditiously reconsider this matter before resolving substantive issues” in the patent infringement suit filed by interactive TV and video-on-demand (VOD) provider Broadband iTV.

On June 8, U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas signed an amended pair of standing orders regarding motions to transfer filed in patent infringement cases on his docket. The standing orders, which limit venue and jurisdictional discovery as well as require party status reports on motions to transfer, balances judicial efficiency with fairness to patent litigators in a court that has absolutely become one of, if not the, most important court in U.S. patent law today.

If you’ve ever wondered how and why Judge Alan D Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas became America’s go-to judge for patent cases, you don’t want to miss this episode. Before Judge Albright was confirmed in 2018, less than 10 patent cases had been filed in the Waco district in its entire history. In 2020 alone, he took on almost 800 new patent cases, accounting for 20% of all new patent cases filed in the US last year…. This episode covers why Judge Albright loves handling patent cases, his plans for handling a growing docket, and his views on how a judge should handle a patent case and what makes an effective patent litigation counsel.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled on March 8 that Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright’s failure to rule on a motion to transfer by Tracfone Wireless, Inc. was “strikingly similar to circumstances from the same district court last month in SK hynix,” which the court ruled amounted to “egregious delay.” Unlike SK hynix, Inc., F. App’x 600 (Fed. Cir. 2021), where the CAFC stopped short of granting a writ of mandamus, here, the petitioner’s writ of mandamus was granted and a stay of proceedings regarding all substantive issues was ordered until a decision is rendered on the motion to transfer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled on February 1 that Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright’s handling of a motion to transfer by SK hynix “amounted to egregious delay and blatant disregard for precedent” and ordered the district court to stay all proceedings until it has issued a ruling on the transfer motion “capable of providing meaningful appellate review of the reasons for its decision.”

Judge Alan Albright’s Western District of Texas courtroom in Waco, Texas is the preferred venue for patent cases and the new patent rocket docket. Prior to Judge Albright taking the bench, patent cases filed in Waco were scarce, but since Albright taking the bench, patent cases have exploded. Through November 23, 2020, 3,863  patent cases have been filed nationwide. Of that number, nearly 791  have been filed in Judge Albright’s court.

On August 13, Sand Revolution LLC filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The petition asks the Federal Circuit to decide whether U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas abused his discretion to deny a motion to stay district court proceedings pending completion of an instituted inter partes review (IPR) proceeding at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). A look at the underlying circumstances of Sand Revolution’s petition shows that this case, which began as a patent squabble between two competitors in Texas’ hydraulic fracturing industry, is becoming a legal showdown between the right of patent owners to a jury trial in Article III courts and the fate awaiting those patent owners once they’re trapped at a PTAB that is arguably riddled with constitutional due process problems.