In July 2011, RIM and a number of other defendants were sued by GPNE Corp. (a company with its principal place of business in Hawaii) for patent infringement in the District of Hawaii. RIM’s United States headquarters is in Irving, Texas, within the Northern District of Texas. RIM accordingly filed a motion to sever and to transfer venue to the Northern District of Texas. In March 2011, a magistrate judge in the District of Hawaii ruled in favor of RIM (decision available here), finding that it was improperly joined with the other defendants and that GPNE’s claims against it should be severed and transferred to the Northern District of Texas.
Defendants Apple and Barnes & Noble similarly were severed and transferred, but to the Northern District of California. The magistrate judge, sua sponte, severed the other remaining defendants, leaving five cases (against Amazon, Nokia, Pantech, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson) pending in Hawaii.
The district court judge in Hawaii, in May 2011, affirmed the magistrate judge’s order (decision available here).
Judge Kinkeade is handling the case in the Northern District of Texas.
GPNE is represented by Kenneth Mansfield, Jordon Kimura, Robert Klein, and Shaun Mukai, all of McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP; Alexandra Capachietti, Howard Susser, Merton Thompson, Paul Muniz, Stephen Chow, and Zachary Gates, all of Burns & Levinson LLP; and Barry Bumgardner and Steven Hartsell, both of Nelson Bumgardner Casto PC.
RIM is represented by Christian Adams, Michael Purpura, and Michael Scanlon, all of Carlsmith Ball LLP; Andrew Grossman, David Smith, Lindsay Manning, Mark Matuschak, Meng Xi, Michael Jay, Timothy Yoo, and Wendy Verlander, all of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP; and Leon Carter, of Carter Stafford Arnett Hamada & Mockler PLLC.
Nokia is represented by Alexas Skucas, Erik Dykema, and Steven Snyder, all of King & Spalding; and Paul Alston of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing.
Pantech is represented by Alan Wright and Wayne Helge, both of H.C. Park & Associates PLC; and Patrick Shea, of Shea & Kamiya LLLC.
Sharp is represented by David Sipiora, Kenneth Chang, and Matthew Holohan, all of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockon LLP; and Gary Grimmer, of Gary G. Grimmer & Associates.
Sony Ericsson is represented by, among others, Benjamin Setnick, James Mahon, John McDowell, Jr., and Scott Bloebaum, all of Andrews Kurth LLP.
Barnes & Noble is represented by, among others, Jennifer Hayes, Robert Krebs, and Ronald Lopez, all of Nixon Peabody LLP.
Apple is represented by Aamir Kazi, Christopher Green, Erin Kaiser, Kelly Hunsaker, and Ruffin Cordell, all of Fish & Richardson PC; and Louise Ing and Malia Kakos, both of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing.
Amazon is represented by Andrew Lautenbach and Sharon Lovejoy, both of Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher; and Andrew Mason, Jeffrey Love, and Robert Cruzen, all of Klarquist Sparkman, LLP.