Microsoft Wins Mandamus at the CAFC: Allvoice Suit Headed to Washington State

The CAFC granted mandamus yesterday, overruling a decision by Judge Davis (U.S.D.C. Eastern District of Texas) to let a software patent infringement suit against Microsoft continue in Texas rather than Washington state.

According to the ruling (per curium by Judges Newmanm Friedman, and Lourie), all individuals identified by Microsoft as having material information relating to the patents reside within 100
miles of the Western District of Washington "and thus would not have to undergo considerable cost and expense to testify and would also be subject to that district's subpoena powers." The Court further reasoned that "Allvoice has identified 14 witnesses, 12 who reside outside Texas and two who are local Eastern Texas businessmen who bought or used the accused Microsoft products and are not represented as having any knowledge of the patent or the issues of the suit."

According to an article in IP 360, Allvoice apparently "gamed the system by creating the appearance of diversity jurisdiction in the Eastern District of Texas, a no-no that the district court should have identified and stopped."

The patent-in-suit, U.S. Patent Number 5,799,273, claims software dealing with voice recognition in word-processing applications. The specifications discloses, generally, software that creates an interface between voice recognition engines and word-processing documents, such that recognized speech can be directly input into word-processing applications.