VotedBy VotedBy ⌕
Election Day · Tue, Nov 3See how your members of Congress voted →

S. 2733 · 114th Congress

Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016

Key: what the circles and colors mean

Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:

IntroducedPassed one chamberPassed both chambersBecame law (gold)Resolution agreed to (full, dark)Failed or vetoed (gray)

Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.

Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.

Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 114th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.

JFR FlakeSponsor
2 cosponsors · 2 R

2 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.

This bill amends the federal judicial code to allow patent actions to be brought only in judicial districts where:

What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Mar 17, 2016

Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016

This bill amends the federal judicial code to allow patent actions to be brought only in judicial districts where:

  • the defendant has its principal place of business or is incorporated;
  • the defendant has committed an act of infringement of a patent in suit and has a regular and established physical facility that gives rise to the act of infringement;
  • the defendant has agreed or consented to be sued;
  • an inventor named on the patent conducted research or development that led to the application for the patent in suit; or
  • a party has a regular and established physical facility and has managed significant research and development for the invention claimed in the patent, has manufactured a tangible product alleged to embody that invention, or has implemented a manufacturing process for a tangible good in which the process is alleged to embody the invention.

If a foreign defendant does not have a principal place of business, incorporation, or a physical facility in the United States, that foreign defendant may be sued in any judicial district, and joinder of such a defendant shall be disregarded in determining where the action may be brought with respect to other defendants.

These provisions replace current patent action venue laws that allow patent actions to be brought in the judicial district where the defendant resides or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business.

A teleworking employee's dwelling or residence shall not constitute a regular or established physical facility of a defendant.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov

About this bill and sources

Official title: Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016

Latest action (Mar 17, 2016): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Policy area: Commerce · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Mar 17, 2016

Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)

No recorded floor vote found.