Judge Godbey Transfers Case Due to First-to-File Rule

On October 21, 2014, Judge Godbey issued an Order (available here) in Monster Moto v. APT Group. The Order found that, under the “first-to-file rule,” the Northern District of Texas case would be transferred to the Western District of Missouri, the locus of an earlier filed, related lawsuit:

The Court finds there is substantial overlap between these two cases and accordingly declines to hear the case before it under the first-to-file rule. The core issue in both cases is whether Monster Moto infringed on MotoVox’s and APT IP Holdings’s intellectual property rights. Even Monster Moto’s tort claims in this action relate to this issue because they concern allegedly false statements made by MotoVox and APT IP Holdings regarding Monster Moto’s alleged infringement. Additionally, the proof in both cases would be nearly identical because MotoVox and APT IP Holdings would present evidence of the alleged validity of the patent and of Monster Moto’s allegedly infringing conduct in both cases.

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