Litigation In E.D. Texas: Federal Circuit Holds that Google Servers Don’t Justify Venue

I addressed the T.C. Heartland case in a previous blog. The result of this case basically requires that a patent infringement suit must be brought in a district where the defendant resides or where the infringement occurred and where the defendant has a “regular and established” place of business. Understanding this ruling is crucial for planning litigation strategies.

Turns out servers don’t cut it.

“Maintaining equipment [servers] is meaningfully different from…the actual producing, storing, and furnishing to customers of what the business offers,” according to the Court in re Google LLC, case no. 19-126 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 13, 2020). The case brought by Super Interconnect must now be dismissed from Texas, or presumably transferred to Mountain View, California where Google resides.

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