Forum selection clause does not control venue of patent litigation
XPRT Ventures, LLC v. eBay Inc., Paypal, Inc., et al., Civ. No. 10-595-SLR, June 8, 2011.
Robinson, J. Motion to transfer patent litigation to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is denied notwithstanding forum selection clause in confidentiality agreement.
This is a patent litigation involving patents related to electronic commerce. The plaintiff and defendants are each a Delaware corporation with a respective principal place of business outside of Delaware. Four of the five defendants have a principal place of business in California. On December 10, 2010, plaintiff filed an amended complaint. The defendants thereafter moved to transfer the case to the Northern District of California. The motion was denied, inter alia, “because all defendants are Delaware corporations, [and] they have no reason to complain about being sued in Delaware.” The asserted forum selection clause only controlled the parties’ confidentiality agreement and the other private and public factors did not favor defendants.
