Sun wants patent-infringement lawsuits between it and rival Network Appliance to be litigated in California rather than a district court in Texas with a reputation for favoring patent plaintiffs.

Sun filed a motion Monday in U.S. District Court in Northern California, in San Jose, to consolidate there the lawsuits filed by NetApp against Sun in the Eastern District of Texas Sept. 5 and a countersuit filed by Sun last week.

Sun Microsystems, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is only about 10 miles away from NetApp in neighboring Sunnyvale, so it’s more practical for the cases to be litigated in California, said Mike Dillon, Sun’s general counsel, in a blog posting. Lawyers, corporate executives, other witnesses and legal documents likely to be presented as evidence are all there, Dillon notes.

“From both a judicial and economic standpoint, it makes much more sense for the case to be in California,” he wrote.
But the Eastern District Court in Texas also has developed a reputation for litigation brought by so-called patent trolls. A patent-reform bill to curb some patent-suit abuses is before the U.S. Congress.