Patent Loving Judge Keeps Pissing Off Patent Appeals Court, But Doesn't Seem To Care Very Much

You may recall last fall we had an absolutely astounding story about Judge Alan Albright, a former patent litigator, who was appointed as the only judge in the federal district court in Waco. He very, very quickly made it clear that he wanted all patent cases to come to him, turning the Western District of Texas into the new favored home of patent trolls, taking the mantle from East Texas, which has famously been the trolls' preferred home for over a decade. Albright did things most people inherently recognize no judge should ever do. This includes things like literally going on a publicity tour to convince patent holders and trolls to file patent cases in his court. To this day, he seems to relish the fact that, despite being on the bench for just a little over two years, more than 20% of all patent cases end up on his personal docket.

With his desire to be the judge of choice for patent holders, he also built up a reputation for refusing to transfer cases to more appropriate jurisdictions -- even though the Supreme Court made clear in 2017 that patent cases should go to the appropriate docket, rather than whatever one the patent holder wants. A paper published last fall all about Albright's troubling role in patent cases called this out specifically.

Since taking the bench, Judge Albright has likewise staunchly refused to transfer cases out of the Western District. As of July 7, 2020, he has decided thirteen motions seeking transfer away from the Western District under § 1404(a); he has denied eleven. In fact, in a recent order, Judge Albright effectively told Apple—which has been sued at least ten times in cases assigned to Judge Albright and regularly seeks to have those cases moved to the Northern District of California—to stop filing transfer motions.

At the time we wrote that story last fall, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), which handles all patent appeals, had just told Albright to transfer at least one of those cases. In February it got angry at Albright again in a case involving SK Hynix. Incredibly, even though SK Hynix sought to transfer the case all the way back in early May of last year, Judge Albright not only refused to rule on the motion to transfer, but ordered SK Hynix to go through the expensive discovery process -- which is what tends to destroy defendants in patent suits and push them to settle. After months of the judge refusing to even respond to the motion to transfer and having to go through expensive discovery, SK Hynix asked the CAFC to weigh in, and they slammed Albright, reminding him that they'd already scolded him about this last year:

We agree with SK hynix that the district court’s handling of the transfer motion up until this point in the case has amounted to egregious delay and blatant disregard for precedent. As we recently reiterated, “[a]lthough district courts have discretion as to how to handle their dockets, once a party files a transfer motion, disposing of that motion should unquestionably take top priority.” In re Apple Inc., 979 F.3d 1332, 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (citations omitted); see also In re Horseshoe Entm’t, 337 F.3d 429, 433 (5th Cir. 2003) (“[I]n our view disposition of that [transfer] motion should have taken a top priority in the handling of this case by the . . . District Court.”). No such priority was given to the motion here, as it simply lingered unnecessarily on the docket while the district court required the parties to proceed ahead with the merits.

Unfortunately, rather than force Albright to transfer the case, they noted that he'd finally agreed to have a hearing on the motion to transfer, so they'd basically let it slide. The very next day, Albright ruled on the motion... and denied the transfer, saying the trial would move forward. A few days ago, SK Hynix agreed to a settlement to end the case.

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