Almondnet, Inc. v. Yahoo! Inc.

336 F. Supp. 3d 80
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedAugust 21, 2018
Docket16-CV-1557
StatusPublished

This text of 336 F. Supp. 3d 80 (Almondnet, Inc. v. Yahoo! Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Almondnet, Inc. v. Yahoo! Inc., 336 F. Supp. 3d 80 (E.D.N.Y. 2018).

Opinion

I. Leo Glasser, U.S.D.J.

Pending before the Court is a motion to reconsider the denial of a motion to dismiss for improper venue filed by the Defendant on June 12, 2017. Dkt. No. 70. The Plaintiff's opposition to the motion was predicated upon its assertion that the Defendant has waived its right to that relief *82and, alternatively, it cross moved to transfer venue to the Southern District of New York. Dkt. No. 71. Oral argument was heard on September 1, 2017 at the conclusion of which the Court denied the motion to dismiss from the bench-having determined, for the reasons stated on the record, that waiver was incontrovertible. Dkt. No. 90.

The Defendant then petitioned the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to mandamus this Court to set aside the denial of its motion to dismiss, but was advised by that Court that moving this Court to reconsider that denial would be the appropriate course to follow in the light of its decision in In re Micron Technology , 875 F.3d 1091, 1100-01 (Fed. Cir. 2017). The advice was promptly followed with the filing of this motion. Dkt. No. 97.

The Defendant's belief that reconsideration is warranted and that its motion should be granted may be summarily rejected by adverting to Rule 6.3 of the Local Rules of the Eastern and Southern Districts Courts of New York, which requires the memorandum in support of such a motion to set forth concisely the matters or controlling decisions which counsel believes the court has overlooked. In this motion to reconsider, the judge, in a real sense, is asked to confess error-to acknowledge that he overlooked some crucial fact or decision announcing a principle of law which should have required a ruling in favor of the movant. Aware of that psychological ego impacting factor, I am also mindful of the admonition Learned Hand is said to have urged be engraved over the portals of every courthouse in the land, namely, Oliver Cromwell's letter to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on August 5, 1650: "Think I beseech ye, in the bowels of Christ, that ye may be wrong."

The thrust of the defendant's motion is that I was wrong in my view that TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands , --- U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 1514, 197 L.Ed.2d 816 (2017)did not change the law and that In re Micron Technology, 875 F.3d 1091 (Fed. Cir. 2017) confirms their view that it did. In their Memorandum of Law in Support of the Motion, Dkt. No. 97-1 (DM), they state the dispositive legal standard for a motion to reconsider: "The major grounds justifying reconsideration are an intervening change in controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct a clear error or prevent manifest injustice." DM at 4 (emphasis added) (citations omitted). I would note that the cases that have addressed motions to reconsider have also taught that it should not be used to provide an opportunity to reargue points argued previously, United States v. Gross , 2002 WL 32096592, at *4 (E.D.N.Y. 2002), nor to repackage arguments previously made, and that the decision to grant or deny the motion rests within the sound discretion of the court. Devlin v. Transportation Communications International Union , 175 F.3d 121, 132 (2d Cir. 1999). The limitation upon the exercise of that inherent discretionary power is that it be exercised reasonably in response to the specific issue addressed and is not expressly limited by any rule or statute. Dietz v. Bouldin , --- U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 1885, 1892-93, 195 L.Ed.2d 161 (2016). With Judge Learned Hand's admonition clearly in mind, I am confident that in denying this motion I have not overlooked a material matter or controlling decision and that there was no intervening change in controlling law. Although a summary disposition in accordance with Rule 6.3 is warranted, a response beyond it is appropriate.

The amount of litigation spawned by TC Heartland on venue in patent infringement cases and on waiver of venue is staggering, *83as is the effect it has had on the number of those cases filed in the Delaware District Court since that case was decided.

A more expansive disposition of this motion requires a response to two assertions made vigorously by the Defendant on the argument of the original motion to dismiss, Tr. Dkt. 90, and made again on its motion to reconsider and in its Memoranda of Law in support of those motions. DE 23, 34, 97-1 and 105. Those are: (1) that TC Heartland changed the law governing venue in patent infringement cases; and (2) that prior to that change in the law, this motion to dismiss on venue grounds was not available and invoking waiver, therefore, would offend a fundamental understanding of the law of equity. I address those arguments in turn.

I. A Change In the Law

The judicial ink that has been spilled on these issues is considerable and I will refrain from unnecessarily spilling more. The view that the Supreme Court announced a change in the law when it decided TC Heartland requires the counterintuitive acceptance of the understanding that a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals can overrule (or ignore) what has been the law as decided by The Supreme Court of the United States for decades. The Appeals Court ostensibly achieving that result is VE Holding Corp. v. Johnson Gas Appliance Co. , 917 F.2d 1574 (Fed. Cir. 1990). The issue before that court, stated simply, was whether the general venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c), amended in 1988 to provide that a defendant corporation shall be presumed to reside in any district in which it is subject to the court's personal jurisdiction was intended by Congress to be read together with § 1400 (b), the limited venue statute applicable to an action against a corporation for patent infringement, which requires the action to be brought in the state of its incorporation. The VE Holding court decided that it was. It arrived at that conclusion by its understanding of the rule of statutory construction that the presumption that Congress is knowledgeable about existing law pertinent to legislation does not favor maintaining the independence of the two sections.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Shaw v. Quincy Mining Co.
145 U.S. 444 (Supreme Court, 1892)
United States v. Constantine
296 U.S. 287 (Supreme Court, 1935)
United States v. Madigan
300 U.S. 500 (Supreme Court, 1937)
Stonite Products Co. v. Melvin Lloyd Co.
315 U.S. 561 (Supreme Court, 1942)
United States v. Bramblett
348 U.S. 503 (Supreme Court, 1955)
Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Products Corp.
353 U.S. 222 (Supreme Court, 1957)
Hutto v. Davis
454 U.S. 370 (Supreme Court, 1982)
Alaska Airlines, Inc. v. Brock
480 U.S. 678 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Patterson v. McLean Credit Union
491 U.S. 164 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Hubbard v. United States
514 U.S. 695 (Supreme Court, 1995)
United States v. Lawrence Joseph Mayer
775 F.2d 1387 (Ninth Circuit, 1985)
Ve Holding Corporation v. Johnson Gas Appliance Company
917 F.2d 1574 (Federal Circuit, 1990)
United States v. Nicholas J. Masterpol
940 F.2d 760 (Second Circuit, 1991)
Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. Walsh
139 F.2d 809 (Second Circuit, 1944)
Dietz v. Bouldin
579 U.S. 40 (Supreme Court, 2016)
Baker v. . Lorillard
4 N.Y. 257 (New York Court of Appeals, 1850)
Bosse v. Oklahoma
580 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 2016)
TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC
581 U.S. 258 (Supreme Court, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
336 F. Supp. 3d 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/almondnet-inc-v-yahoo-inc-nyed-2018.