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Marshall, Texas, located in the Eastern District of Texas, has become "the unlikely patent litigation capital of America" [http://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/patently-unfair/ (Texas Monthly)] and has gained a reputation for being a "rocket docket" for patent cases. [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/405259/a-haven-for-patent-pirates/ (MIT Technology Review)] However, this "rocket docket" claim is no longer true, as it takes two to three years on average for a patent suit to reach trial in the Eastern District of Texas, compared to around a year in Eastern Virginia. [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/east-texas-courts-are-back-on-top-for-patent-lawsuits/ (Ars Technica)] In 2002, 32 patent lawsuits were filed in the Eastern District. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/business/24ward.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin (New York Times)] In 2015, the Eastern District of Texas received 2,540 patent litigation cases. This constitutes 43.6% of all patent litigation cases filed in the United States, which is more than the cases of all districts outside the top three combined (41.9%). [https://lexmachina.com/lex-machina-2015-end-of-year-trends/ (Lex Machina)] According to [https://www.pwc.com/us/en/forensic-services/publications/assets/2015-pwc-patent-litigation-study.pdf PricewaterhouseCoopers], the percentage of patent litigation cases in the most active districts continues to increase, leading to increased concentrations of patent litigation in certain districts of the United States. From 2012 to 2015, 4,350 patent lawsuits were filed with Judge Rodney Gilstrap, which was 3,000 more cases than were filed with the next highest judge. [https://lexmachina.com/lex-machina-2015-end-of-year-trends/ (Lex Machina)]
Lawyers claim that the district's rules and procedures make it more difficult and more expensive to defend patent lawsuits. However, some lawyers also state that these procedures were not a result of corruption, but simply an attempt to manage the huge number of patent cases the Eastern District of Texas receives each year. Permitting plaintiffs to choose where their case is considered allows patent litigation to concentrate in an area that has a reputation of being plaintiff-friendly. [http://www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202747043717/Will-This-Case-End-East-Texas-Reign-as-the-Patent-Litigation-Capital?mcode=0&curindex=0&curpage=ALL (Corporate Counsel)]
[https://www.pwc.com/us/en/forensic-services/publications/assets/2015-pwc-patent-litigation-study.pdf PricewaterhouseCoopers] statistics show that the Eastern District of Texas had 55 decisions in 2015 involving [[Non-Practicing Entities|non-practicing entities]] (NPEs) as patent holders, which was the most in the country, and 49 percent of NPEs were successful in their patent litigation cases, which is almost double the national average of 26 percent. Decisions involving NPEs made up 37% of the total decisions in the Eastern District of Texas.
