When district courts decide patent matters, they must typically look to the Federal Circuit: as the appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction over patent litigation, its precedential decisions bind the lower courts on patent-related issues. However, convenience transfers present an interesting wrinkle: since they are governed by a venue statute not specific to patent cases, the Federal Circuit must apply the law of the applicable regional circuit court when resolving disputes over such motions. As a result, for appeals of convenience transfer decisions from the Western District of Texas, it is the law of the Fifth Circuit—albeit, as interpreted by the Federal Circuit—that applies. It is for this reason that a new precedential venue ruling from the Fifth Circuit, In re: Planned Parenthood, could force the Federal Circuit to rethink its approach to a variety of issues, including district judge discretion, the location of evidence, and the cost of attendance for witnesses, that have been at the center of the latter court’s series of mandamus rulings involving Waco District Judge Alan D. Albright. The impact of that decision is now being debated by two parties in his court, Motion Offense LLC and Google, while two other plaintiffs linked to Motion Offense have hit the defendant with new complaints of their own.
