In the 18 months after a federal judge ordered patent lawsuits going to the Western District of Texas-Waco Division be randomly assigned, new patent filings dropped by 71%, according to a university research paper.
Based on a statistical analysis showing patent filings dramatically shifted to other courts, especially to courts in the Eastern District of Texas, the academic report suggests its findings “tend to support calls to increase the randomness of judicial assignments as a means to frustrate judge shopping.”
