Gunn v. Minton

Gunn v. Minton, 568 U.S. 251 (2013), is a US patent law case. The case dealt with the question of jurisdiction of patent law litigation in regard to attorney malpractice. In a unanimous ruling, the United States Supreme Court decided that federal laws granting exclusive jurisdiction to cases involving patents does not preclude the ability of state courts to hear cases related to but not involving patents. The case was remanded to the Texas state courts for further proceedings.

Gunn v. Minton
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 26, 2013 Decided February 20, 2013
Full case name	Jerry W. Gunn, et al., Petitioners v. Vernon F. Minton
Docket no.	11-1118
Citations	568 U.S. 251 (more) 133 S. Ct. 1059; 185 L. Ed. 2d 72; 2013 U.S. LEXIS 1612; 81 U.S.L.W. 4085; 105 U.S.P.Q.2d 1665
Argument	Oral argument
Opinion announcement	Opinion announcement
Case history
Prior	Summary judgment granted in favor of defendant, 2006 WL 3542699 (Tex. Dist. Sept. 16, 2006); affirmed, Minton v. Gunn, 301 S.W.3d 702 (Tex. App. 2009); reversed, 355 S.W.3d 634 (Tex. 2011); cert. granted, 568 U.S. 936 (2012).
Subsequent	Supreme Court of Texas overturned, remanded to Texas state courts for further proceedings.
Holding
28 U.S.C. § 1338(a), which provides for exclusive federal jurisdiction over a case "arising under any Act of Congress relating to patents," does not deprive the state courts of subject matter jurisdiction over a state law claim alleging legal malpractice in a patent case.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinion
Majority	Roberts, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
28 U.S.C. § 1338(a)

External links

• Text of Gunn v. Minton, 568 U.S. 251 (2013) is available from: CourtListener Google Scholar Justia Oyez (oral argument audio)