TeleCommunications Systems (TCS) has sued Sybase 365 (formerly Mobile 365) twice more for patent infringement in the Eastern District of Virginia.  In a prior case before Judge Spencer, TCS won a jury verdict on March 21, 2009 against Sybase for infringement of a single patent (6,985,748), and a damages award of $12 million.  On July 30, TCS filed a second lawsuit.pdf against Sybase in the Richmond Division, for infringement of a related patent which had just recently issued.  The case has been assigned to Judge Spencer as well. 

On the same day, TCS filed this Complaint.pdf against Sybase in the Alexandria Division, asserting infringement of two separate patents "permitting the two-way communication of short messages between either a short message service center or a wireless handset, and an HTTP device or an Universal Resource Locator."  Although filed in Alexandria, this case has been assigned to Judge Doumar in Norfolk pursuant to the EDVA's patent rotation procedure.

Because of the identity of the parties and similarities in the technology, look for the consolidation of these cases at some point.

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The EDVA recently granted Funai Corporation's motion to transfer (previously reported in our blog here) and kicked Vizio, Inc.'s patent infringement case to the Central District of California in its August 7, 2009, Order.  In weighing the interests of justice, the Court determined that the mere fact of one percent of sales of the offending product in Virginia was not enough to keep the case pending in the Rocket Docket, especially in light of the substantial connections of both plaintiff and defendant's third-party manufacturers to California.  While Vizio countered by arguing that despite the lack of connection to Virginia, the fact that the EDVA is a Rocket Docket should weigh against transferring the case, the Court recognized that while the docket conditions of the transferor and transferee courts may be considered, it would not give it commanding weight.  The Court reasoned that if it allowed docket considerations to control, then all cases filed in the EDVA would be immune from transfer.  

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