We're a day late on this, but it could be major news for Delaware patent litigators: the Western District of Texas is ending its practice of sending all patent cases filed in Waco to Judge Alan Albright.
Previously, all cases filed in Waco, TX were assigned to Judge Albright, a former patent litigator. He has favorable rules for resolving cases quickly and putting pressure on accused infringers, although I'm not sure that they are quite as tilted towards patentees as Law360 makes them out to be.
According to Law360, Judge Albright received 23% of all patent lawsuits in 2021. That's a lot!
We'll have to see whether, going forward, some of those plaintiffs instead choose to come here to Delaware, in light of the new WDTX assignment process. Here, a the parties are guaranteed to get a judge who is very, very familiar with patent practice. And luckily we now have a date—August 3, 2022—by which the District of Delaware should be back to full strength!
If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to receive free e-mail updates about new posts.
