HOUSTON - Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the state’s patent dockets, according to Lex Machina’s 2026 Patent Litigation Report.
The new report found that Texas remains the undisputed epicenter of U.S. patent litigation, with the state’s federal courts handling more than 38 percent of all patent lawsuits filed nationwide between 2023 and 2025.
Once known as the “rocket docket,” the Eastern District of Texas has firmly reclaimed its dominant status as the country's top patent venue, while case assignments remain heavily concentrated among a small group of Texas judges.
According to the report, the Eastern District fielded 1,245 patent cases in 2025 alone, accounting for 25.7 percent of all federal patent suits nationwide and surpassing the Western District of Texas and the District of Delaware combined.
The majority of the claims in the Eastern District were assigned to Judge James Rodney Gilstrap, who landed 1,029 patent cases in 2025. Judge Gilstrap has personally overseen nearly 20 percent of all patent cases in the country over the last three years.
The report further found that the Western District of Texas has rebounded, fielding 531 patent cases in 2025, 158 of which went to Judge Alan D. Albright. There was also a sharp rise for Judge Walter David Counts III, who jumped from 108 cases in 2024 to 337 in 2025.
Overall, Texas experienced a statewide surge in patent litigation. Filings in the Northern District of Texas nearly doubled over two years, rising from 65 cases in 2023 to 125 in 2025.
For the nation, district court patent filings reached a ten-year high before pulling back in 2026. Plaintiffs filed 4,547 patent cases in 2025, a 19.6 percent increase over 2024 and the highest total in the 2016–2025 period.
From Jan. 1 through June 30, claimants filed approximately 1,900 new patent lawsuits, putting 2026 on pace to finish comfortably below the record level reached in 2025, the report states.
Patent damages also remain above $2 billion for a fourth consecutive year. Courts awarded $2.353 billion in patent damages across 63 cases in 2025, excluding fees and interest.
From 2023 through 2025, reasonable royalty awards totaled $8.1 billion, with $8 billion awarded through verdicts, underscoring the continuing role of juries in the highest-value patent recoveries.
When it comes to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the report found that activity has entered a sharp slowdown. Inter partes review petitions fell approximately 8 percent to 1,208 in 2025, while post-grant review petitions increased to 75, their highest level since 2021. In the first half of 2026, parties filed only 201 PTAB petitions—fewer than in any other half-year period in at least a decade.
“The 2026 Patent Litigation Report captures a litigation landscape in transition,” said Eric Wright, senior vice president for Lex Machina at LexisNexis. “District court filings reached a ten-year high in 2025, with growth extending well beyond high-volume plaintiffs, while the first half of 2026 brought a pronounced slowdown—especially at the PTAB.”
Lex Machina’s data highlights how forum choices and judicial assignments in Texas continue to dictate the strategic roadmap for corporate defendants, high-volume plaintiffs, and trial counsel nationwide.
