Will East Texas be able to keep patent cases despite the Supreme Court?

Enlarge / The federal courthouse in Marshall, Texas. (credit: Photo by Mario Villafuerte/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The top US patent court has been asked to consider an urgent appeal from a manufacturer of supercomputers that's desperate to escape an upcoming trial in the patent hotspot of East Texas.

The Eastern District of Texas has become known as a haven for the type of litigation shops sometimes derided as "patent trolls," but the district's strict discovery rules and tendency to favor jury trials has attracted operating companies seeking to enforce their patents, as well. In 2015, Raytheon filed a patent lawsuit in East Texas accusing Seattle-based supercomputer maker Cray Inc. of infringing four Raytheon patents related to supercomputer hardware and software.

Cray filed a motion to have the case dismissed, arguing that the venue was inappropriate. In April, US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ruled against Cray, noting that the company sold an XC40 supercomputer to the Texas Advanced Computing Center, or TACC, which is located outside the Eastern District, in Austin.

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