Rural Texas Judge Runs Busiest Patent Court in U.S.

Rodney Gilstrap has earned the title of busiest patent judge in the country. He has handled more than 4,000 patent infringement lawsuits since becoming a judge with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in 2011.

Gilstrap was assigned more than 20 percent of all patent cases filed in U.S. federal district courts in 2016, according to Bloomberg Law data. No other judge even came close.

It’s a challenging job, Gilstrap told Bloomberg BNA, but he keeps the cases moving with clockwork-like precision and procedures designed to promote efficiency and predictability.

Those same rules that help keep ...