The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday did not appear eager to upset the patent litigation landscape by drastically limiting where infringement lawsuits can be filed.
The court heard arguments in the closely watched TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, touted as one of the most important IP cases of the decade. That is in part because of the sharp rise in patent suits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, home of allegedly plaintiff-friendly federal judges. Roughly 40 percent of infringement suits have been filed there in the last two years, a statistic that critics point to as proof of blatant forum-shopping.
