This morning the Federal Circuit released a nonprecedential order in a patent case. In the order, the court denied a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to direct the Western District of Texas to transfer the case. The Federal Circuit highlighted that the petitioner did not ask the district court to reconsider its decision. Here is the introduction to the opinion.
In re accessiBe Ltd. (Nonprecedential Order)
accessiBe Ltd. petitions for a writ of mandamus directing the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to vacate its November 3, 2021 order denying transfer and to transfer this matter to the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. AudioEye, Inc. opposes the petition. accessiBe replies.
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To obtain mandamus relief, this court must be satisfied that a petitioner has no “adequate alternative” means to obtain the desired relief. Mallard v. U.S. Dist. Ct. for the S. Dist. of Iowa, 490 U.S. 296, 309 (1989). Here, we cannot say that it would be futile for accessiBe to ask the district court to first reconsider its decision in light of its arguments. See In re BigCommerce, Inc., 890 F.3d 978, 982 (Fed. Cir. 2018); In re Nat. Oilwell Varco, L.P., 2015-140, 2015 WL 10936642 at *2 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 7, 2015) (collecting cases). We therefore deny the petition without prejudice to refiling after accessiBe first asks the district court for reconsideration. Any new petition for a writ of mandamus from the district court’s ruling on reconsideration will be considered on its own merits.