Mandamus for Improper Venue
Patent – Patently-O 2023-09-06
Summary:
by Dennis Crouch
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently declined to issue a writ of mandamus directing the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Judge Gilstrap) to dismiss a patent infringement lawsuit against Charter Communications based upon improper venue. In re Charter Commc’ns, Inc., No. 2023-136 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 5, 2023). Although non-precedential, the decision highlights a key difference between motions to dismiss for improper venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1406 and motions to transfer venue for convenience under 28 U.S.C. § 1404. It also shows the high bar for obtaining the “extraordinary remedy” of mandamus relief from denial of an improper venue motion.
The usual rule for appeals is that parties must wait until final judgment. Assuming that it loses on the merits, Charter will have another opportunity to appeal venue once the case is concluded.
Background: Entropic sued Charter for infringing several of its patents, including US10135682. The patents cover various aspects of cable network management, focusing on Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTS) that serve multiple cable modems. The CMTS determines various Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) related metrics for these modems and assigns them to different service groups based on these metrics.