Judge Rodney Gilstrap Sees A Quarter Of The Nation's Patent Cases (vice.com)

derekmead quotes a report from Motherboard: Since taking the bench in 2011 -- moving literally across the street from his law office into the district courthouse -- Judge Rodney Gilstrap has become one of the most influential patent litigation judges in the country. In 2015, there were 5,819 new patent cases filed in the US; 1,686 of those ended up in front of Judge Gilstrap. That's more than a quarter of all cases in the country; twice as many as the next most active patent judge. This busy patent docket didn't blossom overnight, and it's not some strange coincidence. Due to some unique rules around intellectual property filings, patent holders can often file their lawsuits at any district court in the country, even if neither the plaintiff nor the defendant is based there. By introducing a list of standing court orders and local regulations, the Eastern District of Texas (and, in particular, Gilstrap's division of Marshall) has become the court of choice for many plaintiffs, especially non-practicing entities, often referred to as patent trolls.

Comments

When I hear "oligarchy", I think "justice".

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Judge Rodney Gilstrap Sees A Quarter Of The Nation's Patent Cases

It seems like every other article I read about the patent system has people complaining about how overloaded everyone in the system is, and yet this dude is carrying a quarter of the load all by himself! So, I guess they need to hire a fourth guy?

Re:When I hear "oligarchy", I think "justice".

[Errol backfiring]

And a psychiatrist. I cannot believe that anyone who has seen that much legalese nonsense still wants to live.

what we arent being told.

[nimbius]

Ronnie Gilstrap is actually a huge inside joke perpetuated across multiple state and local governments. The idea being that a single random litigator, Ronnie, is suddenly and without any adequate explanation forced to spend his entire career presiding over cases he cant possibly comprehend for clients with more money than god.

Imagine it. a man in texas who gets out of bed every morning, wipes his ass, kisses his wife, and then has to sit in a robe all day furiously trying to comprehend what the fuck a phone gesture is and why it gets a patent. Or mild mannered Ronnie, walking through the front door of a grueling day of court cases, only to sit at the dinner table in front of his mashed taytos and chicken fried chicken unable to eat a bite, as hes crucified by the sorrowful fact that he just spent the entire week hearing two people argue over the semantics between a click, a swipe, and a swish.