41 Judge Albright continues to move his cases along. He conducted three patent jury trials since July 25, with each resulting in findings of infringement and damages awards: US$1.9 million against an oilfield services company, US$274 million against Lab Corp., and US$949 million against Intel in round three of the VLSI litigation. Plaintiffs have now won 11 of 17 trials; damages awarded have ranged from US$235,000 to US$2.2 billion, with a median of US$14 million. Next door, in the Eastern District of Texas, Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap continues to preside over 95% of civil cases filed in Marshall. Following the July 25 order, patent filings in Marshall have ticked up slightly, with 165 cases compared to 147 during the same period in 2021. Judge Gilstrap took nine cases to jury verdicts in 2022, with six resulting in infringement verdicts—including a US$31 million award against Ericsson and a US$218 million award against PNC Bank. Since Judge Garcia’s order, new filings in the WDTX have fallen, though not as precipitously as some initially predicted. Plaintiffs filed about 30% fewer cases in WDTX from July 25 through December 31 compared to the same period last year, despite almost no year-over-year change in the number of patent cases filed nationwide. Plaintiffs have been able to keep many new cases before Judge Albright by designating them as “related” to cases he handled previously. As a result, half of the 291 cases filed in the Waco Division since July 25 were assigned to Judge Albright. O’Melveny ‘maintains a strong foothold in the main US patent litigation venues, with a focus on hardware to software, augmented reality to streaming video, e-commerce and digital technology to pharmaceuticals, acting on the defense and offense side alike.’ —Legal 500 US
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