What to Buy when Forum Shopping – Determinants of Court Selection in Patent Litigation

Abstract

To ensure local accessibility to justice, most judicial systems are characterized by the coexistence of multiple geographically dispersed entry courts. If a dispute fulfills the requirements for territorial jurisdiction at more than one of these courts, the plaintiff gains the option to conduct forum shopping; that is, to freely select the court of his choice to seek judicial relief. Particularly in patent litigation, forum shopping is considered common practice, since the infringing act, e.g., the manufacture or the sale of the infringing product, usually occurs at a national if not international scale (Moore, 2001b).