Throwing some Chill back on WDTex

by Dennis Crouch

I posted yesterday about changes in W.D.Tex. distribution of patent cases under the lead “Waco may be Heating Up Again this Winter.”  I noted a new order from Judge Garcia that seemed to implicitly distribute Waco patent cases back to Judge Alan Albright.  I also noted initial statistics for December 2022 showing the vast majority of Waco cases being assigned to Judge Albright.  The only exception so-far in December is a pair of related cases assigned to Judge Yeakel.

This post pulls-back a bit. I dug into the data a bit further, with the following results:

• 18 cases filed in the Waco Division of W.D.Tex.
• 13 of these have been assigned to Judge Albright. BUT, all 13 are directly related to a case either currently before Judge Albright or one that was dismissed within the past year.
• 2 of the cases were assigned to Judge Yeakel; and 3 of the cases are unassigned.  None of these appear related to a case currently before Judge Albright.

What all this means: (1) there is still some amount of distribution ongoing; and (2) we don’t know what is really happening from any official position. The key takeaway then is that we’ll need to wait and see what actions new Chief Judge Moses takes.

In case numbers overall, For December 2022 WDTex remains the most popular district but is closely followed by NDIll and NDCal.

One interesting case to watch is Apple Inc. v. AliveCor, Inc., Docket No. 5:22-cv-07608 (N.D. Cal. Dec 02, 2022).  AliveCor appears to be winning its case in the ITC showing that the the Apple Watch is infringing. Now, Apple has sued AliveCor, alleging that the startup’s wearable heart monitors infringe Apple patents. [APPLE ALIVECOR complaint].