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Court Grants Facebook's Motion to Transfer Venue in Patent CasePragmatus AV, LLC a company in the business of owning and managing its patent portfolio, brought a patent infringement suit in the Eastern District of Virginia against Facebook, LinkedIn, Photobucket and YouTube. Pragmatus AV, LLC v. Facebook, Inc., et al., 2011 WL 320952 (E.D.Va. Jan. 27, 2011). Pragmatus brought suit alleging that defendants' video uploading and linking technology directly and indirectly infringes three patents owned by Pragmatus. Defendants brought a joint motion for transfer of venue to the Northern District of California. On January 27, 2011, the Honorable Judge Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia ("EDVA") granted Defendants' Joint Motion for Transfer of Venue, holding that the claims could have been brought in the Northern District of California, and the interests of justice and convenience of the of the parties justify transfer to that forum. 28 U.S.C. §1404(a). The court was persuaded by the fact that Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn are all headquartered in the Northern District of California and that Photobucket has an office in San Franscisco and does business in the district. Pragmatus did not dispute that California has personal jurisdiction over the defendants. Pragmatus, however, rejected the argument that transfer is convenient to the parties and witnesses and in the interests of justice. Pragmatus argued that plaintiff's choice of forum is typically entitled to substantial weight, and because the company is headquartered in the EDVA its choice of forum is entitled to deference. However, the defendants countered that plaintiff must prove a legitimate connection to the district to be entitled to deference. In this case, Pragmatus' is in the business of acquiring patents, licensing the technology and sueing infringers. Pragmatus' only employee in the district is a co-owner who has owned a home in Alexandria and works for the company part-time. Furthermore, Pragmatus was formed in Alexandria just a week before it acquired the patent portfolio at issue and just five months before bringing suit. As a result, the court held that plaintiff's choice of forum was given minimal weight due to its weak connection to the forum. The court also held that the convenience of the parties weighed in favor of transfer. Most of defendants' employees who would be asked to testify about their knowledge of the technology are located at the companies' headquarters in California. Additionally, three of the five lawyers and the inventors who would testify for plaintiff are located in California. The court also rejected Pragatus' contention that transfer is improper because Facebook and Google have servers in the EDVA, because Pragmatus failed to claim that those servers contained any evidence that would be relevant to the litigation. Finally, the court rejected Pragmatus' argument that the interests of justice weigh in favor of a swift resolution in a court with experience in complex patent litigation. The EDVA is known as the "rocket docket" because civil actions move quickly to trial or are otherwise resolved. However, the court expressed its concern with being swamped with patent litigation by plaintiff's with no significant ties to the district who are merely forum shopping. The EDVA is particularly sensitive to maintaining the speed of its docket for parties with genuine connections to the district. For those reasons, the court held that the interests of justice weigh in favor of transfer to the Northern District of California. In summary, the court held that the factors for transfer weighed "overwhelmingly in defendants' favor." Please check back for updates as the case proceeds.  More Recent Articles |
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