U.S. District Court Judge Alan Albright, one of the most popular jurists for handling patent infringement disputes in the U.S., is moving his chambers from Waco to Austin, Bloomberg Law reported late Wednesday.
The judges of the Western District of Texas have approved Judge Albright’s request to move his primary chambers to Austin in 2025, according to Bloomberg Law. The transfer must be approved by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s Judicial Council.
A former trial lawyer who specialized in representing plaintiffs and defendants in patent litigation, Judge Albright was nominated to the federal bench by then-President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2018 to an open judgeship in the Western District’s Waco Division, where he has been the only Article III judge presiding during the past six years.
Judge Albright worked with a couple dozen patent litigators to develop streamlined rules for patent infringement cases. Citing the new rules and Judge Albright’s expertise in patent litigation, lawyers filed thousands of infringement lawsuits in Waco where they knew he would be selected as the trial judge hearing the matters.
While some in the technology industry openly complained about Judge Albright’s handling of certain key specific cases, lawyers with patent law specialties in both the plaintiffs and defense bar praised the judge’s knowledge and timeliness in which he handled such complicated disputes.
“I represent defendants as much as plaintiffs and I have never seen a judge who better understands patent law and is more interested in the specifics of patent cases than Judge Albright,” Winston & Strawn partner Tom Melsheimer told The Texas Lawbook in an interview in 2022. “Judge Albright has a passion for patent litigation and these are tedious cases that most federal judges are more than happy to let him handle.”
Melsheimer was responding to criticism of Judge Albright by political leaders and judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who complained that Judge Albright’s position as the lone federal district judge allowed plaintiff’s lawyers to “go venue shopping” for more favorable judges.
The criticism resulted in the then-chief judge of the Western District issuing an order that reassigned patent lawsuits filed in Waco among the district’s dozen active judges. The order caused the number of patent cases assigned to Judge Albright to drop by nearly 50 percent.