Senators target Albright in a letter criticising Waco patent litigation
Two US senators have criticised Judge Alan Albright for engaging in “inappropriate conduct” in order to make the US District Court for the District of West Texas the go-to court for patent litigation in the US.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democrat Patrick Leahy co-signed a letter addressed to Chief Justice John Roberts that expressed concern over the “extreme concentration” of patent litigation before the Texas court.
The concentration is facilitated, the letter claims, by the ability of plaintiffs that sue in the West Texas court to request their case to be heard in a specific division, allowing them to choose Albright, who is the only permanent judge at the Waco court.
“The concentration of patent litigation is no accident,” the letter claims. “We understand that a single judge in this district has openly solicited cases at lawyers’ meetings and other venues and urged patent plaintiffs to file their infringement actions in his court”.
According to the letter, the Texas court heard an average of one patent case a year in 2016 and 2017. In 2020, this figure grew to nearly 800 patent cases and is on track to reach over 900 in 2021.
This means that roughly 25% of all patent litigation in the US happens before Albright, the letter claims.
The senators also accuse the judge of “repeatedly ignoring” binding case law and “abusing” his discretion by denying transfer motions.
As a result of the denied transfers, there has been a “flood of mandamus petitions” before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This has compelled the circuit to “correct his [Albright’s] clear and egregious abuses of discretion” by granting mandamus relief and ordering the transfer of cases.
This was seen most recently in the Federal Circuit’s order to move a patent dispute between tech company Juniper and Brazos Licensing and Development from the Waco court to the North California District Court.
Addressing Hirshfeld
Alongside this joint letter, Tillis also published a separate letter regarding the recent decision in Apple v. Fintiv handed down by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), claiming that he was “concerned” about how its application is impacting patent litigation “in a single district court”.
This letter addressed to the acting director of the US Patent and Trademark Office Andrew Hirshfeld, again indicts a “sole judge” at the West Texas court for scheduling very early trial dates, which are often “impossible” to fulfil alongside concurrent PTAB proceedings.
Tillis said: “Because the PTAB panels interpret Fintiv to require scheduled trial dates to be taken at face value, panels have regularly exercised discretion to deny inter partes reviews in deference to litigation pending before that district.”
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