Venue Rules and Practice for Patent Infringement Litigation

Summary

Venue rules dictate the geographic location of the court where a lawsuit may be filed. Venue is separate from and additional to, the requirement that the court must have personal jurisdiction over the defendant and subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute. This practice note summarizes the law on proper venue in a patent infringement litigation and provides a starting point for evaluating proper venue in your case. Venue rules for patent infringement litigation are different from the venue rules for other types of commercial litigation. In particular, counsel in patent infringement litigation must investigate proper venue in light of the Supreme Court's decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Grp. Brands LLC, 581 U.S. 258 (2017). TC Heartland significantly restricted venue choice in patent infringement suits and abrogated the Federal Circuit's prior interpretation of venue law, an interpretation that dictated venue in patent infringement litigation for over 25 years.