Regional company's motion to transfer is denied
Marvel International LTD. v. Link_A_Media Devices Corp., Civ. No. 10-869-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 the fact that defendant is a regional enterprise with a principal place of business in California.
This is a patent litigation involving technology relating to disk drives and other data storage devices. On October 11, 2010, plaintiff, a Bermuda company having its principal place of business in Bermuda, initiated litigation. Thereafter, defendant, a Delaware corporation, with a principal place of business in California moved to transfer the litigation asserting, inter alia, that it was a regional enterprise. The motion was denied. Although defendant asserts that it is a regional enterprise, the facts of this case are distinguishable from Synthese USA, LLC v. Spinal Kinetics, Inc., Civ. No. 08-838-SLR, 2009 WL 463977 (D. Del. Feb. 24, 2009). Here, defendant “has offices not only in California, but also in Minnesota, the United Kingdom, and Japan.” Thus, defendant is “not only a national player, but more of an international one, displacing it from regional enterprise status.” The other private and public factors also did not favor defendant.
