The United States has 94 federal judicial districts, but in 2015, almost half of all new patent cases were filed in just one—the Eastern District of Texas. More than 670 district court judges preside over the nation's courts, but nearly one-third of all patent cases filed in 2015 were assigned to a single judge – the Honorable Rodney Gilstrap, in, yes, the Eastern District of Texas.

“There has never been a time when there was such a concentration of cases in one federal court,” said John Sganga, a partner at Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear who has handled many cases in that district. “No other area of federal law has seen one district become such a magnet nationwide.”

For years, lawyers have been complaining about the high concentration of patent suits in a single district court, noting that the companies they represent and the technological innovation the patent system was designed to protect have no ties to the area. Even setting aside whether Eastern District rules and practices create skewed outcomes that make that court overly plaintiff-friendly—a view held by many lawyers—the high concentration of cases in one place creates a public perception that patent litigation is all about gamesmanship and the U.S. patent system is broken.