Eastern District of Texas Disclosures: The Texas Four Step

Healey/Elacqua IP Litigator Article

I have been a practicing litigator for nearly a quarter of a century, and have been in patent lawsuits in the Eastern District since 1996, and have focused on patent litigation for the past 13 years.  During this time, I have seen the Eastern District transform from one where time to trial was fast compared to most other courts, and courts were reluctant to limit claims or grant summary judgment or even to limit discovery to a district where cases are on a more typical district court schedule, where claims are limited as the specification or file history or case language so required under case law, and where summary judgment is granted when no fact issues exist.  I won’t comment on the defense verdicts but there have now been several; such that the district’s statistics likely are no more “plaintiff friendly” than most other “popular patent” districts.