Sens. Patrick Leahy and Thom Tillis are asking Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to facilitate a Judicial Conference study of patent litigation “forum shopping,” a move apparently aimed at shifting such cases away from a Western District of Texas hot bed.
The last two years have seen a consolidation of patent litigation in Judge Alan Albright’s court in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas after he encouraged patent plaintiffs to file in Waco, resulting in nearly 25% of all patent litigation pending before Albright, Tillis (R-N.C.) and Leahy (D-Vt.) said in the letter.
Tillis ...