In re Core Scientific
Panel: Prost, Mayer, Cunningham
The Federal Circuit denied Core Scientific's mandamus petition seeking to compel transfer of a patent infringement suit from the Eastern District of Texas to the Western District of Texas. Malikie Innovations and Key Patent Innovations sued Core in EDTX alleging infringement based on bitcoin mining operations, but after Core moved to transfer, Malikie amended its complaint to add allegations concerning Core's High Performance Computing activities in EDTX, and Core filed a third-party complaint against CoreWeave for indemnification related to those HPC activities. The district court denied transfer, focusing on witness convenience and the fact that significant alleged infringement occurred in EDTX.
The court's analysis turned on Core's failure to address the amended and third-party complaints in its mandamus petition, both of which concerned ongoing activities in EDTX. Citing In re Samsung Electronics Co., the Federal Circuit noted that amended complaints supersede original complaints for venue purposes, rendering Core's right to relief anything but "clear and indisputable" under Cheney v. U.S. District Court for D.C. The court declined to consider Core's venue-manipulation argument because it was raised for the first time in reply briefing, emphasizing that such belated arguments are particularly inappropriate in the mandamus context where petitioners bear the burden of demonstrating entitlement to extraordinary relief.