Albright, Patent Lawsuit Magnet, Said to Be Shifting to Austin

Judge Alan D Albright of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas is set to leave his one-judge federal courthouse in Waco, Texas, where the former patent litigator attracted so many patent suits that it drew criticism in the halls of Congress and at the US Supreme Court.

Albright is expected to preside instead in Austin, Texas, which is within the same district and has a vacancy, two sources told Bloomberg Law on Wednesday. The move, voted on and approved by judges in the Western District of Texas, awaits final approval from the Judicial Council of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Albright, who practiced in Austin previously and who teaches a law school course there, requested the move, one person familiar with his plans said. Albright declined to comment Wednesday.

Albright would remain in Waco until his replacement is confirmed, the sources said.

Albright was appointed by then-President Donald Trump to the bench and sworn in September 2018. By 2021 nearly one in every four patent lawsuits were filed in his one-judge Waco Division, where his local rules ushered patent cases to trial relatively quickly and where he presided over cases that resulted in $2.18 billion and $948 million verdicts against US semiconductor titan Intel Corp.

After outcry from several senators and Chief Justice John Roberts, the Western District’s former chief judge issued an order dictating that new patent suits filed in Waco would be randomly assigned to the judges across the sprawling judicial district. The move quickly shrunk the patent docket for Albright, who frequently tells patent litigators at the end of trials in his court how much he enjoys hearing them argue the technically challenging cases.

Judges in the Western District convened over several days and decided Monday to let Albright fill one of two vacancies in the Austin division, which has seen its population boom as the state capital has grown in size. Austin is also home to many of the tech companies that are targets of patent cases appearing before Albright. That leaves one vacancy in Austin and a new vacancy in Waco, Texas’ 23rd largest city and home to Baylor University and popular HGTV remodeling show Fixer Upper.

His move will also deprive Texas’s Republican senators and Trump from being able to fill both of the vacancies on the Austin bench with new picks. The capital is frequently where liberal litigants file their challenges to Texas laws, and since May 2023 has only had one full time district judge, Barack Obama appointee Robert Pitman.

Spokespeople for Texas Sens. Ted Cruz (R) and John Cornyn (R) didn’t immediately return requests for comment.