How significant is the potential for transferring a case to a different venue?
McKool: A defendant typically makes a motion to transfer a case to its home forum in order to benefit from advantages it may offer, particularly a friendly jury pool. The motion to transfer typically alleges that the forum selected by the plaintiff is inconvenient because it is burdensome to send all the witnesses and documents there. Plaintiffs do not want these motions to succeed because it will usually leave them in a worse venue. One reason that the Eastern District of Virginia does not have more patent filings is because there is a 15 percent chance of a defendant succeeding in a motion to transfer. So a plaintiff’s selection of this court does not guarantee a fast time to trial because a defendant’s successful motion will take the case to a different venue. Editor: Do multi-district litigation rules have an impact in this area? McKool: When a plaintiff sues various defendants in different venues alleging violation of the same patents, the defendants may request a Multi-District L
