Nine-Month Venue Transfer Battle Ends in Victory for Patent Litigation Defendant

On February 1, 2016, SKV attorneys Jeff Potts and Hector Chavez obtained an order transferring a patent case against their client, an oilfield technology company, to the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.  The patent plaintiff had filed suit in the Western District of Texas.  SKV persistently briefed the issue over a nine month period– filing a motion to transfer and a motion for reconsideration before the Western District, filing a mandamus before the Federal Circuit, and filing a renewed motion to transfer when remanded back to the Western District.  The persistence paid off when the Western District Court reversed its previous course of denying transfer and found persuasive the arguments that the litigation should be pursued in the more convenient venue of Houston.  The parties’ arguments and the Court’s ruling in part addressed whether there should be a division-by-division, not just district-by-district, comparison of convenience.