Apple Pushes Back Against Patent Trolls in Their Favorite Court

For decades, the preferred venue for patent holders and patent trolls—entities whose main asset is their large patent portfolio—to sue a big company was the Eastern District of Texas. With good reason. Apple Inc., for instance, was hit with a $439 million judgment in one case brought by VirnetX Holding Corp., and it’s appealing a $503 million verdict in a second case. So it was only natural, when Seven Networks LLC wanted to file a patent suit against Apple in 2019, that it went straight to the Eastern District.

Seven Networks alleged that every iPhone since the iPhone 4, every iteration of the Apple operation system since OS 9, and every iPad, Apple Watch, and MacBook violated a dozen or more of its patents. It also noted that Apple sold these products in the Eastern District. This mattered because in 2017 the Supreme Court had ruled that patent holders had to file their suit in a place where the defendant conducted business.