I don't understand the whole state courts thing - would I be correct in assuming that if the decision is made in Texas then it only applies in Texas, so every company that is erroneously sued there can just shut up shop in that state and refuse to ship goods there?

Because that would be rather amusing - watch as Texas rapidly devolves 50 years in technology. See if the courts start to look at things differently then :o)

I know that if someone tried to sue me in Texas I would just point and laugh - I'm in the UK. Just not sure if that's the case if you are in another state.

Must be getting beer money from Dell:

" from Acer and Apple through Belkin, Dell, Circuit City and Best Buy to Intel, HP, Lenovo and Dell."

I've no idea of the merits of this particular case, but it seems to me that if a company is sued for patent infringement on the basis of a patent that has been granted and subsequently proved to be bogus, shouldn't the accused company be given a de-facto right to sue the US Patent Office for its incompetence in granting the patent and thereby aiding and abetting the demand of money with menaces?

We definitely need some sort of harsh potential penalties against USPO to force them to sit up and realise that their continued incompetence in granting patents without proper demonstration of their novelty and validity will not be tolerated.

Such cases should also be backed up by a guarantee from the accuser that if the accused settles voluntarily and the patent is subsequently declared to be bogus, that the accused has an automatic right (which cannot be waived, even by agreement) to the refund of all licence fees and consequent costs.

"Easter District of Texas"

Didn't think Texan's believed in Easter :D

"I don't understand the whole state courts thing - would I be correct in assuming that if the decision is made in Texas then it only applies in Texas, so every company that is erroneously sued there can just shut up shop in that state and refuse to ship goods there?"

All patents disputes are solved in federal court. It some that most people don't know out side of the US but when are talking about courts in the US and you say Eastern, Northern, Western or Southern district, they are referring to Federal courts

A judge and his lawyer son have turned East Texas into THE spot to file this rubbish.

Best justice money can buy.