Federal Circuit Denies Petition to Transfer Viasat Case to Northern Calif.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal District denied Western Digital’s mandamus petitions to vacate the Western Texas district court’s decision denying transfer of Viasat’s patent infringement claims and to transfer the case to U.S. District Court for Northern California, said its order Monday (docket 23-115). Viasat opposed the petitions. In its order denying transfer, the district court said Western Digital is headquartered in Northern California, but several of its employees who are potential witnesses work from its offices in Austin, and eight former employees who are also potential witnesses still live within the Western District of Texas, it said. The district court rejected Western Digital’s argument that the current and former employees don’t have relevant and material information, it said. The Federal Circuit’s mandamus review was limited to determining whether the denial of transfer was such a clear abuse of discretion that refusing transfer produced a patently erroneous result, said the order. The district court considered the relevant factors and found Western Digital failed to show the Northern District of California “had a clear comparative advantage with regard to the witness and sources of proof factors,” it said: “Mindful of the standard of review on mandamus, we are not prepared to disturb those findings, which, taken together with the district court’s other findings, provide a plausible basis for its judgment of discretion to deny the transfer request here.”