The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a writ
of mandamus and ordered the district court to decide a
motion for intra-district transfer before proceeding to further
substantive matters, explaining that both intra-district and
inter-district transfer motions must be prioritized. In re:
Apple Inc., Case No. 23-120 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 6, 2023) (per
curiam) (nonprecedential).
SpaceTime3D sued Apple for patent infringement in February 2022
in the Western District of Texas, Waco Division. In July 2022,
Apple moved to transfer the action within the Western District to
Austin. The motion was fully briefed by the parties on November 7,
2022. The claim construction hearing was scheduled for November 17,
2022, based on an agreement between the parties. The day before the
hearing, Apple moved to stay the hearing and all other proceedings
until the district court ruled on Apple's pending motion to
transfer. The district court deferred claim construction, then
denied
