U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA), including its Norfolk Division, is part of the Fourth Circuit and is renowned as the "Rocket Docket" for its exceptionally fast civil trial times. The EDVA encompasses four divisions: Alexandria, Norfolk, Richmond, and Newport News, collectively serving over 85% of Virginia's population. While specific statistics on patent docket size vary, the EDVA consistently ranks among the most active venues for patent litigation due to its expedited schedule.

The EDVA's patent docket has a strong reputation for speed and efficiency, averaging around 11 months from filing to trial for all civil cases, though patent suits, being more complex, might experience slightly longer, but still notably fast, timelines compared to other districts. For instance, in 2024, the EDVA was the second-fastest civil trial docket in the country, with a median time to trial of 14.2 months. The court is not generally characterized as overtly plaintiff- or defendant-friendly, but its rapid pace can create pressures that benefit plaintiffs seeking quick resolution and injunctions. Judges in the EDVA are known to grant transfer motions or motions to dismiss with merit, and such preliminary motions can sometimes extend the pre-trial schedule. Claim construction hearings in the EDVA are typically brief, often lasting only a few hours and focusing on attorney arguments rather than extensive evidence.

Unlike some other prominent patent litigation venues like the Eastern District of Texas, the EDVA does not have specific local patent rules. Instead, patent cases are managed under the court's general local rules and judge-specific (and division-specific) procedures, leading to some variability in practice across judges and divisions. The court emphasizes strict adherence to scheduling orders, limits continuances to extreme circumstances, and employs an economical briefing regimen, typically allowing only one summary judgment motion limited to 30 pages. Patent cases are randomly assigned across the district's judges and divisions.

A prominent patent case heard in the Norfolk Division is Centripetal Networks, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc. In 2020, Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. presided over a 22-day bench trial and initially awarded Centripetal Networks a staggering $2.6 to $3.2 billion in damages for willful infringement of four network security patents, a sum reported as one of the largest patent verdicts in U.S. history. However, the Federal Circuit later vacated this judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings before a different district court judge due to the original judge's conflict of interest related to Cisco stock ownership. The case was administratively closed in July 2025, pending Federal Circuit appeals.

While there is random assignment of patent cases, certain judges have been noted for their involvement in patent litigation. Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr., now a Senior Judge, presided over the high-profile Centripetal Networks v. Cisco Systems case. Other active district judges in the EDVA include Chief Judge M. Hannah Lauck (Richmond), Rebecca Beach Smith (Norfolk), Raymond Alvin Jackson (Norfolk), Liam O'Grady (Alexandria), and Anthony John Trenga (Alexandria). Many of the current district judges have prior experience as magistrate judges in the EDVA, giving them familiarity with pretrial issues and settlement conferences in patent disputes.