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`Chief Judge of the Western District
`of Texas Ends Automatic
`Assignment to Judge Albright of
`Patent Cases Filed in Waco
`Division: A Look at the Numbers
`
`By Elaine Chow | July 28th, 2022 | Legal Trends
`
`Is this the end for Judge Alan Albright’s dominance as
`the most popular judge for filing patent infringement
`suits?
`
`On July 25, 2022, Orlando L. Garcia, the Chief U.S.
`District Judge for the Western District of Texas,
`ordered that all patent cases filed in the Waco Division
`on or after July 25, 2022, would no longer be
`automatically assigned to Judge Albright, but instead
`would be randomly assigned to one of 12 district court
`
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`Chief Judge of
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`Ends Automatic
`
`IPR2022-00602
`Apple EX1087 Page 1
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`judges in the W.D.Texas – including Albright.
`
`The Lex Machina team took a look at our data on July
`28, 2022 and the numbers in this post reflect our
`database at that time. As cases change, our data will
`continue to update as well.
`
`In 2021, More Than 95% of Patent Cases Filed in the
`W.D. Texas Were Assigned to Judge Albright
`In 2017, only 85 patent infringement suits were filed in
`the entire W.D. Texas. But shortly after his
`confirmation in September 2018, Judge Albright
`openly encouraged patent owners to file suit in his
`court. A plaintiff filing a civil suit in the W.D. Texas
`could select the Waco Division, which meant the case
`would be assigned to Judge Albright, the only judge in
`that division.
`
`By 2020, Judge Albright became the most active judge
`in U.S. patent litigation, with 793 patent cases filed in
`his court that year. Last year, 932 of the 978 patent
`cases filed in the W.D. Texas – or 95.3% – were
`assigned to Judge Albright. These 932 cases
`represented 23% of all patent cases filed in the U.S.
`Furthermore, last year 29% of all patent cases filed in
`the U.S. by a High Volume Plaintiff were filed with
`Judge Albright.
`
`Judge Albright’s Patent Case Filings
`
`Assignment to
`Judge Albright
`of Patent Cases
`Filed in Waco
`Division: A Look
`at the Numbers
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`IPR2022-00602
`Apple EX1087 Page 2
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`Five W.D. Texas Judges Currently Have Zero Open
`Patent Cases
`However, unlike Judge Albright, his colleagues in the
`other divisions have had only a tiny fraction of the
`patent cases filed in the W.D. Texas. Judge Yeakel is
`second with 30 open cases, and in fact, five district
`judges in the Western District – Judges Biery, Cardone,
`Montalvo, Rodriguez and Pulliam – currently do not
`have any open patent cases on their docket.
`
`According to Lex Machina’s data as of July 28th, of the
`903 open patent cases in W.D. Texas, 862 are before
`Judge Albright. Of the W.D. Texas judges listed in
`Judge Garcia’s order, the current number of open
`patent cases, total number of patent cases assigned
`and the date of the most recently assigned case on
`their dockets are listed in the table below.
`
`W.D. Texas Judges Patent Cases Filed Since 2009
`
`Judge
`
`Division
`
`Open
`patent
`cases
`
`Total
`patent
`cases (open
`and
`terminated)
`
`Year
`most
`recent
`case
`assigned
`
`IPR2022-00602
`Apple EX1087 Page 3
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`
`
`Orlando
`L. Garcia
`
`San Antonio
`
`2
`
`0
`
`2
`
`23
`
`17
`
`2
`
`2022
`
`2017
`
`2022
`
`San Antonio
`
`Del Rio
`
`Fred
`Biery
`
`Alia
`Moses
`
`Lee
`Yeakel
`
`Kathleen
`Cardone
`
`Frank
`Montalvo
`
`Xavier
`Rodriguez
`
`Robert
`Pitman
`
`David
`Counts
`
`Alan
`Albright
`
`Jason
`Pulliam
`
`David
`Ezra
`(Senior)
`
`
`
`Austin
`
`30
`
`331
`
`2022
`
`El Paso
`
`El Paso
`
`San Antonio
`
`0
`
`0
`
`0
`
`5
`
`3
`
`35
`
`2017
`
`2021
`
`2021
`
`Austin
`
`15
`
`181
`
`2022
`
`Midland/Odessa
`and Pecos
`
`4
`
`10
`
`2022
`
`Waco
`
`861
`
`2,524
`
`2022
`
`San Antonio
`
`San Antonio
`
`0
`
`1
`
`3
`
`14
`
`2021
`
`2021
`
`Under the New Random Assignment Process, Judge
`Albright Still Gets Cases
`On July 28, 2022, of the four patent cases filed in the
`W.D. Texas since Chief Judge Garcia’s order, two have
`
`IPR2022-00602
`Apple EX1087 Page 4
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`
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`been assigned to Judge Alia Moses — her first patent
`cases after nearly 20 years on the bench according to
`Lex Machina’s data. One case has been assigned to
`Judge David Counts, and the other case has been
`assigned to Judge Albright. Whether the Western
`District will retain its appeal to patent plaintiffs, given
`that there is supposedly only a 1 in 12 chance that a
`filing will be assigned to Judge Albright, or whether
`another district court will invite plaintiffs to file suit,
`remains to be seen.
`
`Lex Machina’s data updates daily and our team will be
`watching as patent cases shift within the district.
`
`Share This
`Story!
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