District Judge Alan D. Albright has reiterated that delivery of a complaint to the Texas Secretary of State does not effect service on a Chinese defendant because the Secretary is required by statute to forward the process via mail and China has objected to the portion of the Hague Service Convention that permits service by mail. The court further denied a request by the plaintiff, Buffalo Patents, LLC, for alternative service because it had “not attempted to follow the service of process procedures in the Hague Service Convention, but rather asks this Court to permit plaintiffs to sidestep those procedures from the outset”. On these bases, Judge Albright granted ZTE’s motion to dismiss, prompting Buffalo Patents to refile its case five days later even as it filed a notice of appeal of the court’s dismissal.