Eastern Texas' IP 'Rocket Docket' Shows Signs of Slowing

Printer-friendly Email this Article Reprints & Permissions

Patent lawsuit filings in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas -- long considered a national "rocket docket" for intellectual property litigation -- are ebbing after a steady increase during the past seven years.

The district has logged 245 lawsuits so far this year, compared with a total of 372 for all of last year, according to the court clerk's office. If filings continue at the same rate for the rest of this year, there will be 327 lawsuits filed this year, dropping 12 percent from last year.

That would be the first yearly decline in at least five years.

Some lawyers say the growing popularity of the district is to blame for cases taking longer to get through the district. Some of the divisions within the district, particularly Marshall, are seeing a greater slowdown than others, attorneys said. There are no statistics yet to show how fast cases are moving this year, but lawyers are noting the sluggish pace.

"I've got a case down there, it's no rocket-docket at all," said Bill Frankel, a Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione partner in Chicago, who is chair of the firm's copyright practice group. "I think it's starting to dawn on people."

Frankel's case was filed there seven months ago and he won't be able to start initial case management until this month at the earliest, he said. The courts there are now willing to transfer some cases amid the backlog after "jealously" holding them in the past, he said. Frankel says the "ultimate rocket-docket" now is the International Trade Commission, which has become increasingly popular in recent years for patent filings regarding international infringement cases.