A federal judicial panel is set to hear arguments next month on whether to coordinate about a dozen patent infringement lawsuits brought by the same company into multidistrict litigation, the first such request since a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court decision this year changed venue rules.
Patent lawyers predicted a spike in MDL requests after the high court’s May 22 ruling in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods made it harder to bring patent infringement cases in the Eastern District of Texas. On Sept. 28, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will consider whether to coordinate 14 lawsuits brought by Blue Spike, a nonpracticing entity that has sued companies such as Barnes & Noble, Toshiba and Juniper Networks.
