Nearly a decade after a Supreme Court decision appeared to curb the Eastern District of Texas's dominance in patent litigation, the court has reemerged as the nation's busiest venue for patent infringement disputes.
The TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC ruling reshaped the patent litigation landscape by making it more difficult for plaintiffs to sue companies outside their home jurisdictions. As a result, filings in the Eastern District of Texas dropped sharply, with the court's share of patent cases falling from more than 40% to just 10% within a few years.
That decline has proven temporary. Companies with significant operations in East Texas remain vulnerable to being sued there, and recent changes in the Western District of Texas have reduced the appeal of that venue for patent plaintiffs. Together, those factors have helped channel patent litigation back to the Eastern District.
Lex Machina reports that new patent infringement filings in the district surged to 1,245 in 2025, nearly double the number filed two years earlier and more than the combined totals of the Western District of Texas and the District of Delaware, the country's next most active patent venues.
Although patent filings increased nationwide last year, activity has cooled somewhat in 2026. Still, Finnegan Managing Partner James Barney told the Daily Journal that companies with a substantial presence in the Eastern District of Texas are unlikely to persuade courts to move cases elsewhere.
James added that he continues to expect patent litigation activity to grow, though perhaps not as quickly as some anticipated. "I have not seen as much as I would have predicted," he said. "It doesn't look like we have seen a giant surge. It may be yet to come."
