SAN ANTONIO - On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia signed an order randomly assigning patent cases filed in the Waco Division of Western District of Texas “in an effort to equitably distribute those cases.”
In 2021, nearly a quarter of all the patent cases filed in the nation were heard by Judge Alan Albright, the only district judge in the Waco Division. Judge Albright is a former patent attorney who took the bench in 2018.
The city of Austin, which is located within the Western District, is ripe with tech companies that are often named as defendants in patent litigation filed in the Waco Division.
The increase in patent lawsuit traffic in the Waco Division sparked a letter of concern from two U.S senators.
Last November, Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts, expressing their “concern” over the patent litigation forum shopping taking place in the Western District’s Waco Division.
“The concentration of patent litigation is no accident,” the letter states. “We understand that a single judge in this district has openly solicited cases at lawyers’ meetings and other venues and urged patent plaintiffs to file their infringement actions in his court.”
The order states that the patent cases filed in the Waco Division will be randomly assigned to one of the 12 judges in the Western District.