[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2733 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2733

To ensure that venue in patents cases is fair and proper, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 17, 2016

   Mr. Flake (for himself, Mr. Gardner, and Mr. Lee) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that venue in patents cases is fair and proper, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity 
Elimination Act of 2016''.

SEC. 2. VENUE.

    (a) Amendment.--Section 1400 of title 28, United States Code, is 
amended by striking subsection (b) and inserting the following:
    ``(b) Notwithstanding subsections (b) and (c) of section 1391, any 
civil action for patent infringement or any action for a declaratory 
judgment that a patent is invalid or not infringed may be brought only 
in a judicial district--
            ``(1) where the defendant has its principal place of 
        business or is incorporated;
            ``(2) where the defendant has committed an act of 
        infringement of a patent in suit and has a regular and 
        established physical facility that gives rise to the act of 
        infringement;
            ``(3) where the defendant has agreed or consented to be 
        sued in the instant action;
            ``(4) where an inventor named on the patent in suit 
        conducted research or development that led to the application 
        for the patent in suit;
            ``(5) where a party has a regular and established physical 
        facility that such party controls and operates, not primarily 
        for the purpose of creating venue, and has--
                    ``(A) engaged in management of significant research 
                and development of an invention claimed in a patent in 
                suit prior to the effective filing date of the patent;
                    ``(B) manufactured a tangible product that is 
                alleged to embody an invention claimed in a patent in 
                suit; or
                    ``(C) implemented a manufacturing process for a 
                tangible good in which the process is alleged to embody 
                an invention claimed in a patent in suit; or
            ``(6) in the case of a foreign defendant that does not meet 
        the requirements of paragraph (1) or (2), in accordance with 
        section 1391(c)(3).''.
    (b) Mandamus Relief.--For the purpose of determining whether relief 
may issue under section 1651 of title 28, United States Code, a clearly 
and indisputably erroneous denial of a motion under section 1406(a) of 
such title to dismiss or transfer a case on the basis of section 
1400(b) of such title shall be deemed to cause irremediable interim 
harm.
    (c) Teleworkers.--The dwelling or residence of an employee or 
contractor of a defendant who works at such dwelling or residence shall 
not constitute a regular and established physical facility of the 
defendant for purposes of section 1400(b)(2) of title 28, United States 
Code, as added by subsection(a).
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