W.D. Tex. (Waco Division)

Court Profile: U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Waco Division)

Court overview. The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (W.D. Tex.) sits in the Fifth Circuit; patent appeals go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The district spans seven divisions, with Waco (roughly 100 miles north of Austin) a separate division under 28 U.S.C. § 124(d). The Waco Division was an obscure patent venue until Judge Alan Albright took the bench in 2018; it then became the nation's busiest patent docket, drawing roughly 20–25% of all U.S. patent filings at its 2020–2021 peak (about 978 new cases in 2021). After the district's July 2022 random-assignment order, W.D. Tex. filings fell sharply — to 375 new patent cases in 2024 — then rebounded to 531 in 2025, the second-largest share nationally behind the Eastern District of Texas (1,245), per Lex Machina's 2026 Patent Litigation Report.

Patent docket reputation. Waco was widely labeled a "rocket docket" (IPWatchdog; Texas Lawbook), built around Albright's default schedule targeting claim construction roughly five months after the case-management conference and trial within about 18 months; Docket Navigator measured average time-to-trial before Albright at roughly 730 days for 2019–2022. The docket acquired a plaintiff-friendly reputation because Albright was reportedly reluctant to grant venue transfers (Bloomberg Law reported in 2021 he denied "almost 80%" of convenience-transfer motions), rarely stayed cases pending PTAB/IPR, and initially deferred § 101 eligibility rulings until after Markman. That reputation is contested: Docket Navigator data cited by commentators shows patentees won only about 11% of Albright trials from 2019–2022 versus a ~40% national average, with ~98% of his cases settling. The Federal Circuit repeatedly granted mandamus reversing Albright's transfer denials (e.g., In re Samsung, In re Juniper, In re Google), and the Fifth Circuit found a "clear abuse of discretion" in Meishe v. TikTok. Trials were overwhelmingly jury trials.

Local rules and procedures. W.D. Tex. has no district-wide local patent rules akin to the Eastern District of Texas; patent procedure is driven by individual standing orders, chiefly Albright's "Order Governing Proceedings" for patent cases. That order set early Markman dates, per-side claim-term limits (presumed 10/12/15 terms depending on patent count), expedited discovery, and tight transfer-motion deadlines. June 2021 amendments capped venue discovery (5 interrogatories, 10 requests for production, 10 hours of depositions, 20-day response window) and required a status report six weeks before Markman on pending transfer motions. In July 2022, Chief Judge Orlando Garcia ordered new Waco patent cases randomly assigned among the district's judges; Chief Judge Alia Moses continued that practice in December 2022, ending guaranteed assignment to Albright. Some judges later adopted Albright-style patent standing orders, including Judge David Counts (Midland-Odessa) and Judge Kathleen Cardone (El Paso).

Notable cases or rulings. The site's sole tracked case is Context Directions, LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. (filed Nov. 17, 2020; terminated by voluntary dismissal) — a routine Waco filing from Albright's peak era that, as a Waco Division case, would have been assigned to him as the division's only district judge. The landmark W.D. Tex. ruling is VLSI Technology v. Intel, where a Waco jury returned a $2.18 billion verdict in March 2021 — then the second-largest U.S. patent verdict — later reversed by the Federal Circuit and remanded; a related Austin trial produced a $949 million verdict in 2022. Other notable outcomes include Ravgen v. LabCorp ($272.5M Waco verdict, 2022), Voxer v. Meta ($174M Austin verdict, 2022), and Albright's first § 101 grants in USC IP v. Facebook and Health Discovery v. Intel (Dec. 2021).

Judges. Judge Alan D. Albright — a former patent litigator and magistrate judge — was the Waco Division's sole district judge from 2018 to 2025 and the architect of its patent docket; he transferred to the Austin Division in 2025 and announced he will leave the bench Aug. 31, 2026 to return to private practice. Judge Walter David Counts III (Midland-Odessa), also a former patent litigator, adopted an Albright-based patent standing order and became the district's busiest patent judge, with 337 new patent cases in 2025 versus Albright's 158 (Lex Machina). Chief Judge Alia Moses oversaw the December 2022 order sustaining random patent-case assignment. Judge Chris Wolfe, a Tarrant County state court judge, was confirmed in April 2026 to succeed Albright in Waco; Judge Andrew Davis was confirmed the same month for the Austin seat. The post-Albright distribution of his pending patent docket across W.D. Tex. judges was still being worked out as of mid-2026, per Bloomberg Law.