Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap has sparred with
the Federal Circuit over patent venue on several occasions in
recent years, and according to a new appeal he has again strayed
from its precedent. On November 1, Netflix argued
in a mandamus petition that Judge Gilstrap erred in
upholding a recommendation that its improper venue challenge be
denied because certain Netflix content servers constituted
"regular and established places of business" for venue
purposes. That ruling, the company claims, violates a key Federal
Circuit decision providing that such servers cannot form the basis
for venue.
This latest dispute over venue follows several notable shifts in
the law governing venue in patent cases in the past few years.
Among the most significant of those changes was the US Supreme
Court's 2017 decision in TC Heartland, which
significantly altered the distribution of patent suits through its
ruling that a corporation "resides" for venue purposes in
its
