The voluminous filings of patent cases in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall has slowed the "rocket docket" that Judge T. John Ward launched in early 2001 by promulgating rules meant to expedite the disposition of patent infringement suits.

Jeffrey Plies, an intellectual property litigation associate with Dechert in Austin, says the Eastern District has become a victim of its own popularity.

"It's attracting a lot of patent cases, but that's meant it's drowning in its own success," Plies says.

Plies says Dechert filed a patentee's suit in the Marshall Division on Dec. 31, 2007. At a July 29 status conference, Ward set the case for trial on June 6, 2011, he says.

It wasn't an isolated case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Chad Everingham of Marshall says he and Ward held July 29 status conferences for about 30 cases, the bulk of which were filed in the latter half of 2007. Trial settings for those cases are in the summer of 2011, Everingham says.

Everingham says his best guess is that cases being filed now will be set for trial in late 2011 or early 2012.