In Article for The Legal Intelligencer, Akin Gump Lawyers Explore Ramifications of TC Heartland Decision

The Legal Intelligencer has published the article “Venue—Where Do We Go After ‘TC Heartland?’” written by Akin Gump intellectual property partner Matthew Pearson and associate Jonathan Underwood.

The article examines the Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods, which “upended” nearly 30 years of patent infringement litigation practice that permitted patent infringement actions to be brought in myriad districts against a corporate defendant. Pearson and Underwood write that what is a “‘regular and established place of business’ is now an important question for defendants sued for patent infringement outside their state of incorporation.

The authors proceed to explore the likely effects of the decision on future litigation, observing that many questions remain “concerning what type of ‘presence’ [of a business] satisfies the statutory requirements. Litigants, they advise, “would be best served by assessing the full spectrum of case law.”