Federal Circuit Declines Review in Vermont Anti-Troll Case

Vermont v. MPHJ Technology Investments is a case arising out of the Vermont state anti-trolling statute.  As noted in previous posts, this is one of those laws that prohibits sending bad-faith patent demand letters.

In this instance, the accused troll, MPHJ, moved to remand the case to The US District Court for the District of Vermont.  The District Court granted Vermont's motion to remand to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Now this sounds like a no-brainer.  How can you possibly evaluate whether a patent demand letter was sent in bad faith without investigating infringement and/or validity?  So naturally, you'd expect the Federal Circuit to reverse, and tell the District court to stop messing around and do its job.

If so, you'd be wrong.

In an opinion authored by Judge Newman, the Federal Circuit notes that under 28 USC 1447(d), "An order remanding a case to the State court from whch it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise."  So that, as they say, is that.

Guess I should have paid closer attention in my Fed Jur class in law school.