Apple and Qualcomm will have to keep defending a long-running patent suit in Judge Alan Albright’s Waco courtroom after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit refused to send the dispute west. In a ruling issued Tuesday, the three-judge panel said the companies failed to meet the “demanding standard” for a venue transfer, leaving the 2021 case squarely in the Western District of Texas, a district known for rapid patent trials and plaintiff-friendly juries.
The complaint was filed by Arizona-based Red Rock Analytics and targets U.S. Patent No. 7,346,313, which covers circuitry that allows modern wireless transceivers to juggle multiple frequency bands. Red Rock says the technology is embedded in Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Macs as well as the Qualcomm Snapdragon modems that link those devices to 5G and Wi-Fi 6 networks.
Back in March, Judge Albright ruled that the suit should stay where it was filed because both defendants maintain sizable engineering operations around Austin and because the court has deep experience with semiconductor cases. Apple and Qualcomm asked the Federal Circuit to overrule him, contending that the most relevant engineers, documents, and prior-art inventors sit in California and would face a significant burden if forced to travel.
According to Law360, the appellate court was unconvinced. Citing its own Juniper Networks precedent, the panel said transfer motions require an individualized showing of convenience, not broad assertions. The defendants, it noted, never identified a single witness unwilling to testify in Texas, nor any records that could not be produced electronically. Without concrete hardship, the judges concluded, Albright had not clearly abused his discretion, and the case must remain in Texas.
What’s Next for Apple?
With the venue challenge now exhausted, fact discovery and expert reports will move forward in Waco. Although no trial date is on the calendar, patent disputes in Albright’s court typically reach a jury within about two years, so Apple and Qualcomm could find themselves presenting evidence before a Central Texas panel by late 2026 unless a settlement intervenes.
The decision is another reminder of how difficult it is for Silicon Valley defendants to escape Texas’s booming patent docket. For plaintiffs such as Red Rock, the Western District offers quick timelines and jurors perceived as receptive to infringement claims. For giants like Apple and Qualcomm, the price of doing business increasingly includes the prospect of litigating high-stakes chip patents far from home.