Judge Robinson recently denied a patent infringement declaratory judgment defendant’s motion to sever and transfer venue to the District of Kansas. Plaintiff Cox filed a declaratory judgment action in the District of Delaware regarding twelve patents owned by Sprint. Cox filed that action after Sprint had filed infringement suits related to the same twelve patents against Cox and three other defendants in the District of Kansas. In the declaratory judgment suit, Cox also asserted infringement by Sprint of two of its patents, and Sprint answered and asserted counterclaims for infringement of seven additional Sprint patents. Sprint then filed a motion to sever and transfer to the District of Kansas, where Sprint alleged it had previously litigated five of the patents-in-suit and had relevant witnesses and documents. The Judge in Kansas then found that the District of Kansas did not have personal jurisdiction over Cox and that the case should be transferred to Delaware, but the parties did not indicate that this mooted the motion to transfer before the Delaware court. Accordingly, Judge Robinson considered the motion to transfer the Delaware action to Kansas. See Cox Comms. Inc. v. Sprint Comms. Co., C.A. No. 12-487-SLR, Memorandum Order at 1-2 (D. Del. Mar. 27, 2013).
Judge Robinson first found that “exceptional circumstances . . . warrant[ed] departure from the first-to-file rule.” The case, she explained, “is unusual in that the alleged first-filed case, the Kansas litigation, has been transferred to this court. Accordingly, that litigation would be streamlined by having this court also resolve the declaratory judgment claims related to the same patents.” Id. at 4.
Judge Robinson then considered transfer pursuant to § 1404. Relying on her decision in Helicos Biosciences Corp. v. Illumina, Inc., 858 F. Supp. 2d 367 (D. Del. 2012), Judge Robinson observed that a defendant’s state of incorporation—here Delaware—has always been a “predictable, legitimate venue for bringing suit” and that a “plaintiff’s choice of venue should not be lightly disturbed.” Id. at 5 (citations omitted). Accordingly, after considering all of the Third Circuit’s Jumara transfer factors and because “the Kansas litigation has been transferred [to Delaware], the court [found] that the Jumara factors do not weigh in favor of transferring the Cox . . . declaratory judgment claims back to Kansas.” Id. at 6-8. Despite the three other Sprint cases remaining in Kansas, Judge Robinson determined that given “the transfer of [the Cox] case and the Kansas court’s lack of personal jurisdiction over Cox Communications, Sprint [had not] carried its burden of persuading the court, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the Jumara factors favor transfer.” Id. at 9.
Cox Comms. Inc. v. Sprint Comms. Co., C.A. No. 12-487-SLR, Memorandum Order (D. Del. Mar. 27, 2013).
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