East Texas Stayed in First Place in Q1, Trailed by Delaware and West Texas

The Eastern District of Texas was the top patent district for overall litigation (i.e., with no filter for plaintiff type) and NPE litigation in Q1 2025, also holding the number-three spot for operating company litigation. In second for overall litigation was the District of Delaware, which also held a distant third place for NPE litigation but was the most popular district for operating company litigation. Meanwhile, the Western District of Texas was close behind Delaware in third place for overall litigation and comfortably in second for NPE litigation, while not breaking the top five for operating company filings.

The Eastern District of Texas has seen a resurgence in recent years: A longtime patent hotspot, the district was dethroned by the Supreme Court’s 2017 patent venue decision in TC Heartland. However, it vaulted back into first place in Q2 2023 after two unrelated developments caused a drop in NPE filings in the District of Delaware and the Western District of Texas, both of which had risen in popularity post-TC Heartland.

The NPE decline in Delaware was largely the result of two standing orders imposed by Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly in April 2022, one requiring litigants in his courtroom to provide extensive disclosures on their ownership and corporate control and the other mandating the disclosure of certain types of litigation funding. Beginning later that year, Judge Connolly proved that unlike many other courts with heightened disclosure requirements, he was actually willing to go to the mat to enforce those rules—extensively probing the activities of former top filer IP Edge LLC after it came to light that entities under its control had failed to make sufficient disclosures. That investigation led Judge Connolly to uncover what he deemed widespread “fraud” underpinning the business model of IP Edge and its affiliates, as a result of which he referred some of the individuals involved to various disciplinary authorities for related misconduct. The pressure ultimately led IP Edge to stop filing litigation altogether, while other NPEs have largely avoided Delaware since this saga came to a head—perhaps seeking to avoid similar scrutiny.

Some other volume filers have not been entirely scared away from Delaware, however—in some instances, their involvement only being revealed after their cases have ended up before Judge Connolly, forcing them to disclose more about their ownership and control than otherwise would have been required.

Meanwhile, NPEs have filed less litigation in the Western District of Texas in the wake of rule changes that targeted the patent caseload of District Judge Alan D. Albright. Judge Albright, a former patent litigator, became the nation’s top patent judge by litigation volume in Q3 2019 after openly seeking to attract patent cases to his courtroom—which was made possible by divisional ruling rules that let plaintiffs file directly in his courtroom by bringing cases in the Waco Division, where he is the only district judge.

This changed as the result of a July 2022 case assignment order that closed this loophole, requiring that patent cases filed in the Waco Division be randomly distributed across a larger set of judges in the district. A practice subsequently developed, though, by which new cases involving the same patents and parties as prior litigation were assigned to the previous judge, meaning that while his overall caseload had fallen significantly, Judge Albright still received the bulk of these “legacy” cases. A May 2024 order zeroed in on that practice, requiring that parties seeking to get their cases consolidated before a single judge must provide sufficient legal and factual justifications.

In late January 2025, Judge Albright confirmed that he would be moving over to the Austin Division, where he already resides (and where the random case assignment order impacting Waco patent suits does not apply). While Judge Albright stated that he would remain in Waco until his replacement is confirmed, the court began assigning him Austin patent cases soon after. Cases assigned to Judge Albright since then have been predominantly in Austin, along with a handful of actions from Waco and Midland-Odessa reassigned to him from other judges.

See RPX’s first-quarter review for more on this and other key trends shaping patent litigation so far in 2025.