Infringement Cases in the Western District of Texas to be “Equitably Distributed” to Twelve Judges
Under a new policy announced July 25, 2022 by Chief Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas, patent cases will be randomly assigned to one of 12 judges in order to “equitably distribute” them within the district, thereby effectively breaking the monopoly on patent cases held by Judge Alan Albright.
Judge Albright has previously encouraged patent owners to file suit in Waco where he is the sole judge. Patent owners responded overwhelmingly, with 23% of all patent lawsuits nationwide in 2021 filed with Albright. Judge Albright has been criticized for personal policies that allegedly favor patent owners – for example, setting accelerated trial schedules and denying defense motions for stays or transfers.
With nearly a quarter of all patent litigation before one judge out of the nation’s more than 600 district court judges, Judge Albright has drawn sharp criticism. Last year, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stated that patent venue shopping was one of the top issues facing the judiciary. Albright’s plaintiff-friendly policies have led to widespread forum shopping by patent owners seeking a tactical edge over potential defendants.
In addition to denying defendants’ requests for transfers and stays, Judge Albright frequently establishes rapid trial schedules, the net effect of which favors infringement plaintiffs. For context, critics cite the denial of a request for a stay when the litigation patent is under concurrent review before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board in an inter parties review (IPR) proceeding. Routine practice in federal court is to stay the litigation and defer review of the patent’s validity to the PTAB. Under current PTAB policy, the Board may decline to review a patent’s validity when a district court trial would address it first, despite that the PTAB is statutorily required to render a decision within one year of institution of suit to review the validity of a challenged patent. Defendants sued for patent infringement in Judge Albright’s court have argued that his trial schedules and denial of stay requests effectively bar them from challenging patents as a matter of right before the PTAB as provided by the America Invents Act.
With passage of the America Invents Act, patents may be administratively challenged in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the PTAB in a cost efficient, expedient manner. That one federal district court judge was able to garner nearly a quarter of the nation’s patent infringement cases in a plaintiff-friendly forum seemingly provided a fundamentally unfair advantage and encouraged forum shopping by patent plaintiffs. We believe the newly adopted policy by Chief Judge Garcia will discourage fillings in the Western District of Texas and restore litigation fairness to infringement cases.
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Richard A. Catalina, Jr. is a senior partner and Chair of the Intellectual Property and Complex Litigation Department of Jardim, Meisner and Susser, P.C. Mr. Catalina specializes in litigating patent, trademark, trade secret and related Lanham Act disputes, and inter partes proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Mr. Catalina has been practicing law for more than 33 years and has litigated more than one hundred matters in federal and state courts across the U.S, as well as inter and ex partes matters before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
