Patent Suits Flood East Texas Court

Businesses and individuals filed a record 851 patent infringement lawsuits in November — more than half of them in the federal courts of East Texas — amid concerns that new court rules could make it more difficult for their litigation to be successful. Lawyers filed 467 new patent cases last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. That’s 32 percent more infringement lawsuits than have ever been filed in a single month in one judicial district in U.S. history, according to legal-research provider Lex Machina. The biggest wave of new intellectual property cases came during the five business days surrounding Thanksgiving (Nov. 22-30), when plaintiffs filed 341 suits in East Texas, making it the busiest nine-day period in any court jurisdiction ever, Lex Machina data shows.