Will this mean that companies will actively avoid establishing offices in states with any courts that favor prosecutors in patent cases?

That in turn creates a motivation for states to make their courts neutral, or favor defendants in patent cases.

Jurisdictions will compete, and maybe one will rarely enforce any software patents, which I would prefer. I would love for someone to link to a single truly novel software patent, the quintessential "this is why we need software patents" patent. I have yet to read one.

So when is Rodney Gilstrap ( https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/the-year-in-pate... ) going to be investigated for corruption? It seems pretty clear, he passed the law that made it happen, the cases come in front of him.

"where they allegedly infringe the patent and have a regular and established place of business."

So if you are an internet company, add this to your header:

if (ip_address_in_texas) exit;

Otherwise you might still being doing business there?

That's how the trolls were using TX courts prior to this decision. If you have a website, you're doing business in TX and that's where we'll sue. Sounds like this requires you to be based out of or incorporated where you're sued.

If Texas was a country instead of a state, it would have the 10th largest economy in the world, you won't see any such games to avoid Texas (not that it's legally relevant anyway)

Oh? So if your servers cannot connect to anyone in texas you are still liable to trollers for having a business there?

I believe the point was that blanket-banning Texas makes no fiscal sense (especially in the wake of this new judicial development), since you're cutting yourself off from a lot of potential revenue with little benefit.

The article cites number of patent cases taken to court over years. One should note that the damages are geater. When a patent troll was able to stop Microsoft from distributing their office because someone patented a way to save documents in xml and regardless of the final rule or the settlement. The FUD is enough to make many people pay without being sued.

tldr: "...corporate patent defendants can only be sued where they are incorporated or where they allegedly infringe the patent and have a regular and established place of business."

I wonder what the patent-scam scum will pivot to. Probably making sure no one in the Eastern District of Texas maintains a regular business there, then creating new cancerous jurisdictions elsewhere in the USA, perhaps Delaware. That's probably too hard a nut to crack. I think the cancer will metastasize.

There will surely be a new scam, but it won't be as lucrative. If the court can only harm business of local interest then it's much less likely to do harm.

but it will be harder to make the troll's arguments to the juries in places where productive companies actually supply jobs

Yes, it's surely progress. I'd prefer punitive action in addition to the preventive measures. Corruption of the court system itself is heinous.

I actually understood the article. Great job!

Good to hear.