Apple To Close Retail Stores In the Patent Troll-Favored Eastern District of Texas

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple has confirmed its plans to close retail stores in the Eastern District of Texas -- a move that will allow the company to better protect itself from patent infringement lawsuits, according to Apple news sites 9to5Mac and MacRumors which broke the news of the stores' closures. Apple says that the impacted retail employees will be offered new jobs with the company as a result of these changes. The company will shut down its Apple Willow Bend store in Plano, Texas as well as its Apple Stonebriar store in Frisco, Texas, MacRumors reported, and Apple confirmed. These stores will permanently close up shop on Friday, April 12. Customers in the region will instead be served by a new Apple store located at the Galleria Dallas Shopping Mall, which is expected to open April 13. "The Eastern District of Texas had become a popular place for patent trolls to file their lawsuits, though a more recent Supreme Court ruling has attempted to crack down on the practice," the report adds. "The court ruled that patent holders could no longer choose where to file." One of the most infamous patent holding firms is VirnetX, which has won several big patent cases against Apple in recent years.

A spokesperson for Apple confirmed the stores' closures, but wouldn't comment on the company's reasoning: "We're making a major investment in our stores in Texas, including significant upgrades to NorthPark Center, Southlake and Knox Street. With a new Dallas store coming to the Dallas Galleria this April, we've made the decision to consolidate stores and close Apple Stonebriar and Apple Willow Bend. All employees from those stores will be offered positions at the new Dallas store or other Apple locations."

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[Hognoxious]

A corprashun doing what it wants despite what the good ol' boys say! That's cormanissum!

Oh wait.

The Eastern District of Texas

[oldgraybeard]

where the judges and local lawyers (extended family based corruption) are running a buy your court ruling scam for patent trolls.

Anything coming out of the Eastern District of Texas related to patents should be viewed with suspicion.

Just my 2 cents ;)

Re:

[gravewax]

If the patent troll was wealthy and successful in their own right they wouldn't be a patent troll in the first place.

patent trolls are INTENTIONALLY not wealthy, the people that own the patent troll companies are exceedingly wealthy or opportunistic large law firms. By doing it through a separate entity they are protecting themselves from any financial backlash should their trolling fail.

So is it that East Texas is a hive of corruption where Apple (one of the wealthiest and most successful companies on the planet) is being outbid by literally-who patent trolls?

Again as patent trolls are wealthy and have nothing to lose you can't outbid them, doing so would just be a white flag for all the vultures to circle to get their cut.

Or is it that East Texas simply has judges who favor the actual holders of patents (just as the law is written)?

No.

Re:

[PPH]

B...b...but they have Jesus in their hearts.

Re:

[gravewax]

It is a buy-your-ruling in the sense if you bring the cases to texas you will get favourable treatment, hence the courts get more money. Apple can't buy that as what the courts are after is the revenue from the cases not cash bribes or freebies.

Re:What's the deal with the Eastern District of Te

[Solandri]

Patent trials are relatively rare, and held in normal courts. Consequently the typical judge who gets assigned to a patent case only has to deal with a small percentage of patent cases in his/her career, so isn't well-versed in patent law. The East Texas district court realized that since there was no requirement in patent law that the case be filed in a local court, that there would be a demand for a court where the judges were well-versed in patent law. They set out to make themselves that court, as a way to increase their workload and thus revenue.

Their rationale (patent trial judges should be specialized in patent law) was fine, even admirable. But their motivation (increase revenue) created a corrupting feedback loop. The more cases their judges decided in favor of patent trolls, the more patent trolls chose to file in their district, and the more revenue the court got.

Re:What's the deal with the Eastern District of Te

[mbkennel]

Why are Federal Courts thinking about "revenue" ? If any institution ought to be free of commercial entanglements, this is it.

Re:

[Xenx]

Because people like getting paid. Or at least, being able to provide for themselves and their families.

Re:What's the deal with the Eastern District of Te

[keltor]

They aren't. Federal Court Judges are paid strict salaries that are set by law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Dutch Gun]

But increased workloads likely can be used to increase the number of local employees of the courts, and thus indirectly affect one's power base. This is not just about the judges, but the entire mini-industry the East Texas district has set up for itself. I've heard of corporations that have gone in the opposite direction as Apple just did before the "no shopping" rule was in effect, making lucrative civic donations in an attempt to sweeten dispositions toward themselves among the local citizens. If that

Re:

[LostMyAccount]

Empire building.

I'm sure with the specialist workload they get added budget dollars and probably added fees from cases filed in their district. I'm sure there are a lot of people living well because they are a paid consultant on something to this court.

I also don't doubt there is a lively social economy in orbit around the judges and influential staff people in this court and I'm sure if there was ever a strict audit, especially of spouses, children and extended family members there would be a lot of unusu

Re:

[orient]

There might have been another incentive: judges ruling over cases where their own sons represented patent trolls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Re:

[LostMyAccount]

I can definitely see that districts juries filled with people engaging in some populist fantasy about sticking it to an East/West coast greedy corporation trying to steal ideas from the little man.

Not a surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

Texas is currently a red shithole to use Trump's vernacular. But the scales are tipping inexorably to the left over time. Won't be long before it's blue and bullshit like this gets cleaned up.

Re:

[keltor]

This is a Federal Court district for the State, but like all Federal Court Judges, they are nominated by the President and the majority of the judges in the Court have been nominated by either Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. These are all jury trials and the jury pool (near Tyler, Marshall, and Texarkana) is what's conservative. That isn't changing.

*cough* TC Heartland SCOTUS Case *cough*

[AnalogDiehard]

The SCOTUS case TC Heartland vs Kraft of 2017 [wikipedia.org] ruled that patent litigants can no longer "forum shop" for jurisdictions that are friendly to their case, they can only file patent infringement cases in jurisdictions where the defendant has a physical presence. This ruling was aimed squarely at non-practicing entities (the polite term for "patent trolls") who almost unilaterally selected East Texas district or Delaware to file their infringement cases.

Apple won't admit it, but the closure of the stores in the East Texas district was a strategic legal move to exploit the SCOTUS precedent and shield themselves from the patent courts that are all too well known to rule in favor for patent litigants - and for the patent trolls Apple is currently battling.

Re:

[Cmdln Daco]

Can we encourage patent trolls in the places we live and use it as a mechanism to drive Apple Stores out of our area? I could get to like not hearing that kabonga-kabonga Applephone ringtone so often.

Re:

[Alci12]

That won't work as the courts are not generally as dysfunctional as East Texas.

I live in DFW, TX... and its bad

[MikeDataLink]

The patent trolls here are literally ***buying*** the courts and the politicians are looking the other way.

Re:

[FerociousFerret]

Yes, and now Apple with the closing the 2 stores closest to me (Stonebriar in Frisco and Willow Bend in Plano). Stonebriar is ALWAYS busy. Haven't been to Willow Bend in a while but it was also always busy last time I visited. Thanks much. :-(

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

You should demand that your local politicians fix the courts. Then you can have nice things again.

Re:

[jedidiah]

The courts have shit to do with this. It's just some deeply unhinged fantasy concocted by someone with an axe to grind. Otherwise, ALL of the Dallas stores would be closing rather than just the ones in the rich northern suburbs.

These jokers aren't even trying to be subtle with their trolling/journalism anymore.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all of Dallas is in the eastern court region. Check a map.

Re:

[demonlapin]

Local politicians, assuming they even wanted things to change, can’t affect federal courts much. Fed judges are appointed for life and are not subject to local control. I suppose the local cops could harass the employees, jury members, and judges, but that’s about it.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

Maybe publicly shame them or get in their faces in restaurants. East Texas, you get nice things again when you get off your butts and fix this.

Re:

[radarskiy]

If they are buying EDTX then they are not getting a very good deal, since the results there are not much more favorable than average

Good move

[Anonymous Coward]

F*ck the Eastern District of Texas. If they love patent trolls so much, then let them buy their tech gadgets from the patent trolls. Oh wait, the patent trolls don't actually make and sell anything. So the people from the Eastern District of Texas really don't deserve tech products.

Re:

[Cmdln Daco]

They deserve better than closed-design Apple products.

People North of Dallas Will Love This

[toddz]

Wow, I have visited the Frisco store plenty of times and it always packed. So much that people can't even hang out inside. I guess the $$$ and risk wasn't worth it and they figure everyone will just drive 30 minutes to go 17 miles and hang out in an even more packed store.

EU nations next?

[AHuxley]

The more EU nations try to tax and regulate? See them the same way as an Eastern District.

Re:

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Don't worry. Europe managed to survive the spectre of Communism, it will overcome the spectre of John Galt, too.