Judge Albright Presided Over the Most NPE Litigation in Q1—and by a Wide Margin

RPX data show that Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright presided over by far the largest share of patent litigation in 2020—accounting for 19% of all defendants sued last year and leading Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who took a distant second place with 6%. While Judge Albright was narrowly outpaced in Q1 2021 by Western District of Pennsylvania Judge Mark R. Hornak, due to a single counterfeit case filed in that venue that targeted nearly 300 defendants, he was the top judge for NPE matters by a significant amount, as shown below—presiding over nearly a third of such litigation. Judge Gilstrap again held the number-two spot for NPE filings, with less than half of Judge Albright’s defendant count. Just behind Judge Gilstrap were three of Delaware’s district judges: Maryellen Noreika (herself a former patent litigator, like Judge Albright), Colm F. Connolly, and Richard G. Andrews.

Judge Albright has stood out in part due to his restrictive posture toward certain early dispositive motions, including motions to transfer for convenience—a form of relief that he has rarely granted since taking the bench in 2018. In recent months, Judge Albright’s handling of such transfer requests has led to a rift between him and the Federal Circuit, a divide that has drawn attention to both how he weighs the various factors in any convenience analysis and, increasingly, his tendency to let those motions sit undecided for months while proceeding with other issues, particularly claim construction. The latter trend finally came to a boil in March 2021, following a series of rulings in which the Federal Circuit highlighted those delays with increasing firmness—leading Judge Albright to announce that he will now rule on interdistrict transfer motions before holding a Markman hearing.

For more on this and other trends impacting patent litigation, see RPX’s first-quarter review.