The Federal Circuit has granted a writ of mandamus in In re Google, ordering that USC v. Google be transferred from Judge Alan Albright's Austin docket to the Northern District of California. The decision arrives just weeks after Judge Albright stepped down from the bench, adding a postscript to his long tenure as a magnet for patent litigation.
Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, and the Federal Circuit's grant signals that the transfer was clearly warranted. The appellate court did not explain its reasoning in the brief notice, but the move effectively undoes the case's initial venue in the Western District of Texas, a forum that had become closely associated with Judge Albright's patent-heavy docket.
For Google, the transfer is a procedural win that moves the case to a district known for a different patent litigation climate. For USC, it means litigating in a new forum after the case had already been assigned in Austin. The practical impact on the merits remains to be seen, but the venue change is now final.