As we previously reported, Magistrate Judge Burke issued a report and recommendation in October, recommending denial of a motion to transfer venue filed by patent-infringement defendant Yahoo! Yahoo! filed objections to that report, and Judge Stark has now considered the objections. Yahoo! argued that Judge Burke’s report applied the wrong analysis with respect to the “location of witnesses” and “practical considerations” Jumara factors and had improperly balanced all of the Jumara factors. Judge Stark, however, found none of Yahoo!’s arguments persuasive, and he overruled the objections, adopted Judge Burke’s report, and denied the motion to transfer. Pragmatus AV, LLC v. Yahoo! Inc., C.A. No. 11-902-LPS-CJB, Memo. Order at 1-3 (D. Del. Jan. 16, 2013).
The Court overruled all of Yahoo!’s objections, despite giving the motion to transfer de novo review. As Judge Stark noted, a motion to transfer is “non-dispositive and subject to a ‘clearly erroneous’ or ‘contrary to law’ standard of review.” Id. at 1-2 (citing In re Heckman Corp. Securities Litig., 2011 WL 1219230, at *1 (D. Del. Mar. 31, 2011)). Nevertheless, “[c]ourts are split as to the standard of review that should be applied to review of objections relating to a motion to transfer venue.” Id. at 1 n.1. Given this split of authority, the fact that neither party had addressed the standard of review, and Judge Stark’s “determination that the Report should be adopted even under the most stringent (de novo) standard of review” the Court applied de novo review. Id.
Pragmatus AV, LLC v. Yahoo! Inc., C.A. No. 11-902-LPS-CJB, Memo. Order (D. Del. Jan. 16, 2013). by
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