With the transformation of his Waco courtroom into the venue for more than 25% of all patent cases in the United States, Judge Albright can’t keep up with all the business he’s “drummed up” for his courtroom. He’s made heavy use of technical advisors—one of whom made more than $700,000 in the first half of…
Tag Archive for judge albright
Sens. Leahy and Tillis to Chief Justice Roberts: Something’s Up In Waco
by Josh Landau •
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee had an active day yesterday with members sending out a pair of letters that suggest that they see some serious problems in the patent system. The first letter, sent by both Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Tillis to Chief Justice Roberts, in his role as head of the Judicial…
Federal Circuit to Judge Albright: You Get An F
by Josh Landau •
In yet another mandamus order directed to the Western District of Texas, the Federal Circuit has once again explained to Judge Albright that his analysis of transfer motions is incorrect and ordered him to send a case elsewhere. It’s worth reading the entire order in In re Hulu, but if you don’t have time, I…
Despite Patentee Protestations, It Isn’t Expertise That’s Bringing Plaintiffs to Waco
by Josh Landau •
The meteoric rise of the Waco Division’s patent caseload is widely understood to be due to plaintiff-friendly policies on scheduling, transfer, and motions to dismiss. But recently, some patentees have taken a different tack. They’ve claimed that the reason cases are headed there is because litigants want to take advantage of Judge Albright’s experience as…
Federal Circuit Nominee: Judges Should Judge The Cases They Have, Not Seek Cases They Want To Judge
by Josh Landau •
Tiffany Cunningham, President Biden’s nominee to the Federal Circuit—the first nominee to that court in six years—is incredibly well qualified to join the bench of the court she once clerked for. She’s spent her career litigating patent cases for plaintiffs and defendants, working on high-tech and life sciences cases, and she’s universally well-respected by all…
One Case, All The Problems: VLSI v. Intel Exemplifies Current Issues In Patent Litigation
by Josh Landau •
Patent litigation suffers from a number of issues at present. Hedge funds backing non-practicing entities (NPEs) in order to chase a share of billion-dollar judgments. Plaintiffs using damages methodologies that have little to no relation to the reality of the patent system in order to obtain those billion dollar judgments. NPEs asserting patents that they…
Trouble In Plaintiff’s Paradise?
by Josh Landau •
There are signs that, despite Judge Albright’s best efforts, the rest of the world might not support turning the Western District of Texas into another NPE haven like the Eastern District in its glory days. After Judge Albright’s efforts to make sure Waco was “open for business for patent cases”, NPEs flocked to the Waco…
Forum Selling and Judge Shopping—How Two Texas Districts Compete For NPE Cases
by Josh Landau •
Judge Gilstrap of the infamously NPE-friendly Eastern District of Texas used to handle one out of every four patent cases in the entire United States. The Eastern District as a whole handled more than 40% of all patent cases nationally, despite only having about 1% of the nation’s population. After the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision…
Meet the Western District of Texas—NPEs Certainly Have
by Josh Landau •
For years, the Eastern District of Texas was the favored stomping ground for patent trolls. Short times from filing to trial, shorter trials, judges with local rules friendly to patent plaintiffs, and a jury pool that tended to be friendly to plaintiffs all contributed to this. It probably didn’t hurt that Eastern District judges were…