E.D. Tex. (Marshall Div.)

Court overview. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division (E.D. Tex.), sits in Marshall, Texas, and is part of the Fifth Circuit. It is the nation's busiest patent venue by a wide margin: the Eastern District drew 1,245 new patent cases in 2025 — roughly 25.7% of all federal patent filings, more than the Western District of Texas (531) and the District of Delaware combined, per Lex Machina's 2026 Patent Litigation Report. Case assignments are extraordinarily concentrated: nearly all patent suits filed in Marshall are assigned to Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who alone received 1,029 patent cases in 2025 (about 20% of every patent case filed in the U.S. over the last three years), with Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne handling pretrial proceedings. Gilstrap's January 2023 division order leaves him ~90% of Marshall's civil caseload, and Bloomberg Law (Aug. 2024) reported plaintiffs file there for assignment certainty — a roughly 90% chance of drawing Gilstrap versus the post-2022 "roulette" of W.D. Tex.

Docket reputation. E.D. Tex. originated the patent "rocket docket" under Judge T. John Ward in the early 2000s and retains a historically plaintiff-friendly reputation built on fast trial settings and, in earlier eras, Marshall jury verdicts (the New York Times reported a 78% plaintiff trial win rate in 2006; Judge Leonard Davis later noted that by 2013, 11 of 15 E.D. Tex. patent trials ended in defense verdicts). The docket is overwhelmingly NPE-driven — Unified Patents' 2025 mid-year report found NPEs filed ~89.5% of E.D. Tex. patent cases in the first half of 2025, and the district took in ~45% of all NPE cases nationally. Filings collapsed after TC Heartland (2017) narrowed venue, then rebounded after the W.D. Tex. reassignment order of July 2022 dispersed Judge Albright's docket; the district has since reclaimed its position as the top patent venue (Lex Machina; Texas Lawbook). Practitioners cite the bench's patent trial experience and case speed — judges "seek to bring cases to trial quickly" (Global Legal Post, citing Farella Braun) — as the draw. Venue transfer motions remain heavily litigated but now typically arise under TC Heartland's defendant-residence framework.

Local rules and procedures. The court's Patent Rules (modeled on N.D. Cal.) drive the docket: early Infringement Contentions (P.R. 3-1), Invalidity Contentions (P.R. 3-3), and a compressed claim-construction track — proposed terms within 10 days of invalidity contentions, preliminary constructions 20 days later, a Joint Claim Construction and Prehearing Statement within 60 days, and a Markman hearing (P.R. 4-1 through 4-6). Chief Judge Gilstrap has layered standing orders on top: notably one requiring "Eligibility Contentions" (charts supporting any § 101 subject-matter-eligibility challenge) served alongside P.R. 3-3 invalidity contentions, with amendment tightly restricted (JD Supra). Commentators have also described Gilstrap-era practices requiring defendants to seek leave before filing summary judgment or § 101 motions. Because Payne referees most Markman matters and issues reports and recommendations that Gilstrap routinely adopts, claim construction practice in Marshall is effectively a Payne-Gilstrap pipeline (see the SK nexilis supplemental claim construction order, adopted Apr. 2026).

Notable cases and judges. The two tracked cases — Headwater Research LLC v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless et al. (filed Feb. 6, 2025; dismissed without prejudice) and Headwater Research LLC v. T-Mobile USA, Inc. et al. (filed Feb. 10, 2025; pending) — are part of a broader Headwater campaign asserting inventor Gregory Raleigh's wireless service-management patents against carriers, all assigned to Gilstrap with Payne referral. The related lead case, Headwater v. Verizon (2:23-cv-00352), produced notable rulings: Gilstrap granted Verizon summary judgment of non-infringement on one patent by adopting Payne's report (July 2025), and an April 2026 memorandum opinion following a bench trial on equitable defenses found Headwater's claims barred by implied waiver because it delayed suit to maximize the damages window. The key figures are Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap (Marshall duty station; appointed 2011, chief judge since 2018) and Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne, whom IAM has called one of the busiest U.S. magistrates for patent cases given his Markman workload. Other patent-active E.D. Tex. district judges include Robert Schroeder III (Texarkana) and Amos Mazzant (Sherman), who together with Gilstrap took over 93% of the district's patent cases during a Lex Machina study period — though the tracked cases all sit before the Gilstrap-Payne pair in Marshall.