It is no secret that patent litigation is a costly endeavor. It can price small defendants out of being able to defend themselves on the merits and can likewise be the prohibitive factor when small plaintiffs want to enforce their claims. For the small or mid-sized company, the amount at issue many times simply does not justify the high-cost and high-risk of patent litigation.
The costs of litigation can be managed and decreased using court rules that promote efficient litigation and provide for speedy resolution of disputes. Courts in the Eastern District of Texas are widely recognized as national leaders in patent litigation, in large measure, because they provide a relatively quick system for resolving patent disputes. For the party that employs experienced counsel and a strategy to maximize those attributes, the cost of preparing a patent case can be reduce on both sides. This efficiency is accomplished in various ways, including the use by several judges of special rules for patent cases and those same judges’ continuation of the district's tradition of early, firm trial settings. Experienced counsel can see that speedy trial settings and discovery limitations can be used not only to the benefit of a plaintiff, but to the small defendants’ favor as well when defending commercial patent cases. In fact, the settings provide a way of defending a case on the merits that would otherwise cost too much. A small patent defendant is best off in the Eastern District when it has a defense on the merits because there it may possibly get the cheapest path to a trial setting of anywhere in the nation. The truth is, with a valid case and good lawyering, there is no reason that tremendous advantage cannot be found and a path to more efficient litigation discovered by all parties by using the resources of the Eastern District.