EDVA Transfers Case Under First-Filed Rule

Judge Rebecca Beach Smith (EDVA) applied the "first-filed" rule to transfer a patent infringement case to a New York federal court. Although the patent infringement action was properly filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, the adversary had previously filed a declaratory judgment action on the same issue in the Southern District of New York. As the first filed claim, Judge Smith concluded that it had precedence and thus the EDVA action had to be transferred to New York. The opinion is available here.