Snipe Hunting in the NDTX » Royal Furgeson

Judge Furgeson Named Dean of University of North Texas Dallas College of Law

Kirby Drake — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:37:32 +0000

Senior Judge Royal Furgeson, Jr., of the Northern District of Texas, has been named the founding Dean of the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law, starting in April 2013. The new law school is scheduled to open in downtown Dallas in August 2014. Plans to open the law school had been stalled due to budget shortfalls, but now appear to be moving forward once again with renovations to the building that will house the law school later this year. Once open, it will be the only public law school in North Texas.

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N.D. Texas Applies for Participation in Patent Pilot Program

Kelly Kubasta — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:53:06 +0000

On March 18, 2011, the Northern District of Texas applied to be one of six district courts to participate in the Patent Pilot Program that was recently signed into law. The pilot program will run for 10 years after the participating courts are designated, with periodic reports submitted to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees during that time. The object of the Patent Pilot Program is to improve the expertise and efficiency of district courts’ handling of patent infringement litigation, thereby reducing litigation costs and decreasing the rate of reversal on appeal.

The Northern District of Texas is eligible for participation in the Patent Pilot Program because: (a) for calendar year 2010, the N.D. Tex. was one of the top 15 district courts in terms of number of patent infringement complaints filed; and (b) the N.D. Tex. adopted local patent rules in 2007. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is expected to select the participating districts by June 4, 2011.

If chosen by the Administrative Office to be one of the six district courts participating in the Patent Pilot Program, Chief Judge Fitzwater will designate the following judges to hear patent cases:

Senior Judge Royal Furgeson (Dallas)
Judge David Godbey (Dallas)
Judge Ed Kinkeade (Dallas)
Judge Barbara Lynn (Dallas)
Judge Terry Means (Fort Worth)

Procedurally, a patent infringement case would be randomly assigned to all district judges, regardless whether such judges have been designated to hear such cases. A judge who is randomly assigned a patent case and is not among the designated judges may decline to accept the case. In that circumstance, the case is then randomly assigned to one of the district judges designated to hear patent cases.

If selected to participate in the Patent Pilot Program, this is yet another indication that the Northern District of Texas will continue to solidify its prominence as a favored forum for patent litigation.

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The Future of Copyright File-Sharing Lawsuits

Kirby Drake — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:24:51 +0000

The Northern District of Texas has faced a recent slew of copyright infringement cases filed against John Doe offenders alleged to have engaged in improper Internet file-sharing, such as through BitTorrent file sharing software. These cases often name hundreds or even thousands of anonymous defendants, often having nothing more in common with one another than allegedly having used BitTorrent. Once sued, the plaintiff typically subpoenas Internet providers demanding that they look up the real names and addresses of the anonymous defendants, in order to contact the individual defendants and seek settlement for nominal amounts prior to personally naming the individual defendant in the lawsuit.

Judge Royal Furgeson of the Northern District of Texas has expressed his displeasure for these types of cases in several recent opinions. In particular, Judge Furgeson recently severed hundreds of defendants who have been sued in a single lawsuit and quashed a number of subpoenas issued to Internet providers. Judge Furgeson even granted a reprieve to a group of named defendants already listed as being in default for not showing up to court. In 13 out of 16 cases, all of which targeted hundreds or even thousands of defendants, only one unnamed defendant remains. Judge Furgeson noted that if the plaintiff’s counsel chose to continue to pursue file-sharing litigation, he could do so but only by filing “individual complaints against those Does” over the next 30 days at a cost of $350 per defendant.

In the case of FUNimation Entertainment v. Doe 1, 3:11-cv-01147-F, filed January 24, 2011, Judge Furgeson severed 1,336 of the 1,337 defendants, noting that none of the defendants had anything material in common. “There are no allegations in Plaintiff’s Complaint that the Defendants are in any way related to each other, or that they acted in concert or as a group in the allegedly infringing actions . . . Indeed, it seems that the copyright infringement claim against each Defendant is based on the individual acts of each Defendant.”

It remains to be seen if the rulings by Judge Furgeson will reflect the prevailing view of the courts concerning lawsuits related to alleged use of file sharing software, such as BitTorrent. However, should this become the prevailing view, the future of mass defendant file-sharing lawsuits will be much in doubt.

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