미국 특허침해소송 재판적에 대한 법리의 역사적 전개과정 : 미국 연방대법원 TC Heartland 판결을 중심으로

The CAFC had adopted the legal principle that if defendants sell the accused products on a national scale, patent holders could file patent infringement lawsuits in any of the 94 federal trial courts through VE Holding decision in 1990. But the legal principle had allowed forum shopping to prevail in U.S. patent infringement lawsuits, especially since the 2000s when the lawsuits had increased rapidly in the district court of the E.D. of Texas. Patent trolls had made a lot of economic profit by filing patent infringement lawsuits in the court which is famous for favoring patent holders. Therefore the U.S. Supreme court had decided the TC Heartland decision to block forum shopping of the patent infringement suits in U.S. and to prevent patent trolls from filing patent infringement suits in the E.D. Texas. The Supreme court had found that in case of a domestic corporation the word “reside” set forth by the U.S. judiciary and Judicial Procedure 1400(b) means only its state of incorporation. In the end, the TC Heartland decision is very significant because it limits the venue of the patent infringement lawsuits in U.S..