Alan Albright testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Texas, on April 25, 2018.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas is closing in on the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware as the most popular venue for patent infringement litigation, according to Q1 statistics published today by Unified Patents.

The Western District has become a popular destination for patentees since veteran patent litigator and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Albright was appointed to the court's Waco division in late 2018. During Q1, 158 infringement cases were filed in the Western District of Texas, just shy of the 174 filed in Delaware. The Central District of California was a distant third with 73 cases.

Unified's chief IP counsel, Jonathan Stroud, said that local rules adopted by Albright in consultation with the bar have created a fast track that appeals to patent owners. As far as presiding over patent trials, Albright is still mostly unknown, Stroud added, as he hasn't been on the bench long enough yet to see many cases through to conclusion. That's likely to stay unknown as long as civil jury trials remain on hold due to concerns about COVID-19.

Q1 2020 Patent litigation venues.

One thing is for sure: Tech companies and retailers are becoming more aggressive in trying to get cases out of the Western District of Texas—so far with little success. Last week the Federal Circuit refused to stay an infringement case against Sprouts Farmers Market Inc., while the supplier of its allegedly infringing technology, Dropbox Inc., tried to litigate the patents in Delaware.

And Monday, the Federal Circuit turned away an en banc petition from Apple complaining that the appellate court had shown "blind deference" to Albright's decision not to transfer a suit by Fintiv Inc. to the Northern District of California.

Tech companies have had some success over the years transferring cases out of the Eastern District of Texas, but many of them have larger presences in the Western District. Apple's second largest campus is in Austin, according to Fintiv's filings in the case. "We are pleased that the entire Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed that Apple's baseless effort to gain a home-court advantage must be rejected," said Jonathan Waldrop, a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres who represented Fintiv, in a written statement.

Meanwhile, Castlemorton Wireless LLC filed the most district court suits in Q1, according to Unified's data. Castlemorton filed 23 suits, followed by Merck, Sharp & Dohme with 20 and WSOU Investments, with 17. Castlemorton is asserting a patent on the detection of carrier signals that it says was so novel and important that the British and U.S. governments precluded its publication for 25 years. Castlemorton is represented by Berger & Hipskind, Capshaw DeRieux and Bayard, and is asserting the patent against Verizon, Nokia, Comcast and Juniper Networks, among others.

Samsung Electronics was the defendant named most often in new Q1 cases (12 times), according to Unified. Zydus Pharmaceuticals and Huawei Investment were tied for second.

At the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, filings have remained fairly steady over the last five quarters, though they remain down from 2018 levels. The first quarter saw 329 petitions for inter partes review, compared with 332 and the 335 the previous two quarters.

Samsung was by far the most frequent petitioner, with 44. Google (24), Apple (22), Intel (17) and Juniper (13) rounded out the top five spots.