Tomorrow we will be releasing the 2024 edition of the Patent Litigation Intelligence Report, a powerful resource for legal professionals and experts, including patent litigators, business development professionals, corporate counsel, and all other stakeholders seeking comprehensive insights into the U.S. patent litigation landscape.

This comprehensive report analyzes the patent litigation activity in the United States over the past five years, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2023. A total of 18,191 lawsuits have been filed in this period, collectively involving 17,285 unique patents. The report goes beyond mere case counts, offering a deep dive into various statistical insights. Furthermore, we have evaluated and ranked by activity and performance all stakeholders participating in these cases, including 30,671 companies, 3,309 law firms, 1,359 judges, and 15,808 attorneys. A separate section was dedicated to local counsel. This was made possible through rigorous data collection and analysis by our team of experts at Patexia. Leveraging advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and complementing them with manual work where needed, we have processed tens of thousands of documents.

As highlighted in last week's insight, the annual caseload in patent litigation has exhibited fluctuations in the past five years, experiencing a 15% decrease in 2023 compared to 2022. However, differences in activity levels across different states are evident, as illustrated in one of the analyses within the report. In today's insight, we examine the litigation venue, revealing that Texas maintains its prominent position leading among states in patent litigation, and explore how that position has evolved annually.

As the pie chart illustrates, Texas district courts represented 34.53% (6,281), California district courts comprised 17.43% (3,171), and Delaware district court contributed 17.37% (3,159) of the total 18,191 patent case filings. The collective sum of cases filed in these three states represents 69.33% of all patent lawsuits, highlighting the persistent dominance and importance of Texas, California, and Delaware as the primary jurisdictions for patent litigation in the United States.

A substantial contrast is observed with the next highest states. Illinois, New York, and Florida account for 4.7%, 4.5%, and 3.4% of patent cases, respectively. The remaining states each represent less than 2% of the total. Utilizing our Litigation Analyzer tool, we can view this data from another angle by focusing on the states of Texas, California, and Delaware. The tool allows us to analyze how patent litigation filings have evolved within these states over the past five years.

As seen above, patent litigation in Texas experienced a rapid increase until 2021, followed by a slight decline in both 2022 and 2023, corresponding to the overall decrease in patent filings during those years. The surge, as outlined in the Patent Litigation Intelligence Report, started with the Honorable Judge Alan Albright taking office in September 2018 in the Western District of Texas, who became the most active judge nationally. In response to this heightened activity, an effort was initiated in 2022 to distribute cases more evenly among judges. Chief District Court Judge Orlando Garcia issued an order on July 5, 2022, mandating that all cases filed would be randomly assigned to judges throughout the district.

To assess the effectiveness of this decision on Judge Albright's caseload, as well as its impact on cases filed in the Texas Western District Court, we have dedicated a separate analysis in the Patent Litigation Intelligence Report. Besides the effect of Judge Albright, historically, certain districts within Texas, notably the Eastern District of Texas, have cultivated a reputation for being favorable to patent holders, often seen as more plaintiff-friendly. Local rules and practices within these districts, which might benefit patent holders, along with the practice of venue shopping, wherein parties choose jurisdictions they perceive as advantageous, have further contributed to the concentration of patent litigation filings in Texas. Interestingly, during the same period, case filings in California have experienced a yearly decline, reaching a minimum of 444 in 2022, only to increase again in 2023 to 529 cases. Meanwhile, the Delaware District Court appears to have undergone a significant decline, decreasing from 810 cases in 2019 to 278 cases in 2023.

The full Patent Litigation Intelligence Report conducts an in-depth analysis of patent litigation trends from various perspectives, including the examination of the most active district courts, the identification of the most litigated patents, and the exploration of the most litigated technologies, among other key factors. Furthermore, we have included a detailed list of lateral moves since the publication of our previous report, which extends to evaluating the growth of law firms, considering the number of attorneys who have joined or departed.

To our Concierge Patent Litigation module subscribers, the report will be available for free download starting tomorrow. Additionally, the rankings and badges from the 2024 report will be promptly updated on all attorney, law firm, and company profiles on our site. Moreover, subscribers will continue to enjoy exclusive access to subscription-only content, including appeal ratios, unique patents, top conflicts, and judges associated with each firm, company, and attorney. This ongoing access ensures that our subscribers receive comprehensive and up-to-date insights into the patent litigation landscape.

We will continue to release further insights centered around this report, its key findings, and the top companies, law firms, and attorneys in patent litigation in the following weeks. Stay tuned!