Washington, D.C. associate Benjamin Christoff recently published an article featured by the American Bar Association; “TC Heartland, the VENUE Act, and the Direction of Patent Law;” that discusses the push—both before the Supreme Court and in Congress—to change the venue rules in favor of defendants in patent cases. Ben provides an overview of TC Heartland LLC's appeal to the Supreme Court following the issuance of In re TC Heartland, 821 F.3d 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2016), as well as the Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016 (VENUE Act) currently being considered by Congress. The article then suggests it is time to begin strengthening the patent right once again to preserve a robust incentive for innovation and disclosure of useful inventions for the public's benefit.
The full article can be found here.