NOTE: This order is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals 

for the Federal Circuit ______________________

In re: APPLE INC.,

Petitioner

______________________

2021-135

______________________

On Petition for Writ of Mandamus to the United States 

District Court for the Western District of Texas in No. 6:20-

cv-00665-ADA, Judge Alan D. Albright.

______________________

ON PETITION

______________________

Before PROST, Chief Judge, DYK and WALLACH, Circuit 

Judges.

PER CURIAM.

O R D E R

Apple Inc. petitions for a writ of mandamus directing 

the United States District Court for the Western District of 

Texas to rule on Apple’s pending motion to transfer and to 

stay all other proceedings until that motion is resolved. 

KOSS Corporation opposes the petition. Apple replies. 

KOSS Corporation filed this patent infringement suit 

in the Western District of Texas against Apple. On December 21, 2020, Apple moved to transfer the case to the 

United States District Court for the Northern District of 

Case: 21-135 Document: 10 Page: 1 Filed: 04/09/2021
2 IN RE: APPLE INC.

California. Apple also moved to stay all other proceedings. 

The parties proceeded to engage in venue-related discovery. On February 26, 2021, Apple filed a supplement to its

transfer motion. KOSS filed its opposition to the transfer 

on March 2, 2021. Apple filed its reply on March 11, 2021. 

On March 22, 2021, Apple filed this petition. The following 

day, the district court issued a standing order stating that 

it will rule on pending inter-district transfer motions before 

conducting a claim construction hearing. See Western District of Texas, Waco Division, Standing Order Regarding 

Motion for Inter-District Transfer (Mar. 23, 2021) (“The 

Court will not conduct a Markman hearing until it has resolved the pending motion to transfer.”). In this case, that 

hearing currently is scheduled for April 23, 2021.

Issuance of a writ of mandamus is a “drastic” remedy, 

“reserved for really extraordinary causes.” Ex parte Fahey, 

332 U.S. 258, 259–60 (1947). A party seeking a writ bears 

the heavy burden of demonstrating that it has no “adequate alternative” means to obtain the desired relief, Mallard v. U.S. Dist. Court for the S. Dist. of Iowa, 490 U.S. 

296, 309 (1989), and that the right to issuance of the writ 

is “clear and indisputable,” Will v. Calvert Fire Ins. Co., 437 

U.S. 655, 666 (1978) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

Even when those two requirements are met, the court must 

still be satisfied that the issuance of the writ is appropriate 

under the circumstances. Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Court for the 

Dist. of Columbia, 542 U.S. 367, 381 (2004). Apple has not 

met this demanding standard for relief. 

In light of the district court’s March 23, 2021 standing 

order, Apple’s focal concern that the district court would 

proceed to the Markman hearing before resolving the

transfer motion is no longer an issue. See, e.g., Pet. at 11 

(“It has not indicated that it will postpone the impending 

Markman hearing . . . .”); id. at 20 (“Apple has no more reassurance that its pending transfer motion will be resolved 

pre-Markman than SK hynix did in similar circumstances.” (citing In re SK hynix Inc., 835 F. App’x 600 (Fed. 

Case: 21-135 Document: 10 Page: 2 Filed: 04/09/2021
IN RE: APPLE INC. 3

Cir. 2021)); id. at 21 (“The district court is proceeding with 

one of the most important merits-stage steps in a patent 

case, while declining to defer that step . . . .”). While Apple 

notes in its reply that the new standing order does not offer 

the prospect of postponing any deadline except the Markman hearing, Apple neither identifies specifically what 

those other deadlines are nor identifies any legal authority 

establishing a clear legal right to such relief under these 

circumstances.

Accordingly,

IT IS ORDERED THAT:

The petition is denied.

April 09, 2021

Date

FOR THE COURT

/s/ Peter R. Marksteiner

Peter R. Marksteiner

Clerk of Court

s25

Case: 21-135 Document: 10 Page: 3 Filed: 04/09/2021