The Supreme Court has dealt a significant blow to “patent trolls” that often sue and squeeze a quick payday out of major technology companies using patents that they’ve bought up for that exact purpose. Today, the court unanimously ruled that a defendant should only face patent litigation in the state where it’s incorporated. For Apple, that would be California. For a ton of other US companies, it’s the state of Delaware.
The move is expected to dramatically reduce the number of cases filed with federal courts in eastern Texas, which have frequently sided with patent holders in quick trials involving multi-million-dollar judgements. Nearly 45 percent of all patent infringement cases were filed in the Eastern District of Texas in 2015....
