U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee

Patent Litigation Profile: U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee

Date: 2026-04-30

Court Overview

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, based in Nashville with additional courthouses in Columbia and Cookeville, is a federal trial court within the Sixth Circuit. Appeals in patent cases are directed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The court comprises four district judgeships and three magistrate judgeships. Compared to major patent litigation venues like the Western District of Texas or the District of Delaware, the Middle District of Tennessee has a relatively small but active patent docket.

Patent Docket and Procedures

The Middle District of Tennessee does not have local patent rules, distinguishing it from districts with highly specialized procedures for patent cases. Consequently, patent litigation proceeds under the standard Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the court's general Local Rules. Publicly available statistics from legal analytics firms that would definitively characterize the court's reputation—such as its median time-to-trial for patent cases, its handling of transfer motions, or whether it is perceived as a "rocket docket"—are not readily available. Litigation practice is therefore dictated by the preferences of the assigned judge rather than a uniform set of patent-specific orders.

Notable Cases and Judges

While the district does not handle a high volume of patent litigation, it sees a variety of intellectual property disputes. One active matter is Swift Paws, Inc. v. Tuff Pupper LLC et al., filed in July 2024. A search of court records indicates a range of patent infringement cases, though none have recently garnered the national profile of those in more active patent jurisdictions.

The court's four active district judges are Chief Judge William L. Campbell Jr., Judge Aleta A. Trauger, Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., and Judge Eli Richardson. Without specific reports on judicial caseloads for patent matters, it is difficult to identify any single judge as being particularly prominent in this area of law. Case assignments appear to be distributed among the sitting judges.