U.S. Supreme Court Won't Review 'Rocket Docket' Ruling

The Supreme Court decided Monday that it had better things to do than contemplate whether or not too many patent cases are getting stuck in the rocket docket of the Eastern District of Texas.

The high court denied a petition for cert in In re Volkswagen, a product liability suit that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said should never have been kept in the Eastern District by Judge John Ward.

Decided in October of last year, the case was seminal in freeing patent defendants from a district that is perceived as being plaintiff-friendly and having an iron grip on cases. It was then cited extensively by the Federal Circuit when it came down hard on Ward again for not transferring a patent case called TS Tech.

Since the Volkswagen and TS Tech opinions, Eastern District of Texas judges have been more amenable to transferring cases out of the district, patent lawyers report.