TikTok Transfer Gives Some Patent Defendants a Path Out of Texas

The Fifth Circuit’s decision to move a copyright lawsuit out of Texas will likely make it more difficult for patent infringement plaintiffs suing foreign entities to keep their cases in one of their favorite venues.

Video-sharing app maker TikTok Inc. succeeded last week in transferring a Chinese company’s lawsuit over allegedly stolen source code from one of the most popular venues for patent suits—Judge Alan D. Albright’s Western District of Texas courtroom in Waco—to Northern California, where the company employs an engineering team.

Though a copyright case, the ruling was at least partly aimed at the world of patent litigation, ...