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What are courts with large IP dockets? I know the Fed. Cir., NDCA, and EDTX do, but that's all I know. I have heard SDNY and EDVA as well, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

I heard that D.Del. has become a patent lit hotspot. I think that C.D.Cal. gets a good amount of IP.

Any of the patent pilot districts:

Eastern District of New York
Southern District of New York
Western District of Pennsylvania
District of New Jersey
District of Maryland
Northern District of Illinois
Southern District of Florida
District of Nevada
Eastern District of Texas
Northern District of Texas
Western District of Tennessee
Central District of California
Northern District of California
Southern District of California

There's one in I think... Michigan? Western? Look it up. Note Detroit and Dallas just got USPTOs so that says something

Anonymous User wrote:There's one in I think... Michigan? Western? Look it up. Note Detroit and Dallas just got USPTOs so that says something

Denver, not Dallas. Stupid phone

I recently saw some stats that suggested the best courts (from litigants' standpoint) for patent litigation were: EDVA, DDel, EDTX, and WDWI. And I think that EDVA and WDWI were the only courts with a median time to trial of less than 1 year.

I'm well-acquainted with this. Here are the districts with the most patent cases, as a ratio of their total number of cases:

EDTX (traditional plaintiff-friendly court)
DDel (quickly catching up to EDTX)

NDCA (D-friendly court that D's try to transfer to, esp in software/electronics cases)

CDCA (generally D-friendly, often more of a mix of tech than in NDCA... some large electronic companies are there, but also other stuff)
EDVA (I honestly don't know much about this court, but they do get a lot of patent cases)

SDCA (decent amount of biotech)
DMass (more biotech)
WDWI (this is beginning to be known as the new rocket docket for patent cases that EDVA was, but there still aren't a ton of plaintiffs are really filing here and I dont' think you'll find a lot of judges interested in patent work here)


Another source to check out is courts' local patent rules. Courts that have more detailed rules or were early adopters are slightly more likely to be strong patent districts. But default to my list above.

One other potential option (besides CAFC) is clerking on the USITC (International Trade Commission). I assume they have clerkships, but I honestly don't know much about this, but it might be worth exploring since there are quite a number of patent cases at the ITC nowadays. They also move very fast and the judges put out insanely detailed opinions (albeit with most everything redacted), so I'm guessing their clerks would be very involved. Not sure how firms react to this clerkship (again, assuming it exists), but lots of firms do a ton of ITC patent lit and some people are starting to specialize there.

D. Del. has far more cases filed per judge than any of the other districts, including EDTX. It is second for absolute numbers to EDTX.

ClerkAdvisor wrote:I recently saw some stats that suggested the best courts (from litigants' standpoint) for patent litigation were: EDVA, DDel, EDTX, and WDWI. And I think that EDVA and WDWI were the only courts with a median time to trial of less than 1 year.

Pretty rare that a patent case can be finished in one year.

Anonymous User wrote:

ClerkAdvisor wrote:I recently saw some stats that suggested the best courts (from litigants' standpoint) for patent litigation were: EDVA, DDel, EDTX, and WDWI. And I think that EDVA and WDWI were the only courts with a median time to trial of less than 1 year.

Pretty rare that a patent case can be finished in one year.

Outside of rocket dockets (e.g. NDCA, SDNY, etc.), yes that is rare. Inside rocket dockets (e.g. EDVA and WDWI), patent trials within 1 year of filing is the rule rather than the exception.

Browsing through Oscar the other day, I saw an interesting opportunity with J. Pfaelzer of C.D. Cal. which seems patents-only.

Anon because I'm thinking of applying. Timeline is too short for this to work out with my firm, but we'll see.

Anonymous User wrote:Browsing through Oscar the other day, I saw an interesting opportunity with J. Pfaelzer of C.D. Cal. which seems patents-only.

Anon because I'm thinking of applying. Timeline is too short for this to work out with my firm, but we'll see.

I've heard this is an insanely competitive clerkship to get. I applied to this after working for only a few months (IP lit firm w/ PhD in EE/CS, top 10% at a CA T20) and I didn't even get a peak. She is a feeder judge to the Fed Cir. Good luck!

to the above poster: did you end up luckier elsewhere? with those creds, i'd imagine you're competitive for d.ct. clerkships if not fed. cir.

fwiw, when i do recruiting for my firm (im a midlevel), im not sure of the added benefits of a phd in ee over a bs

D. Del. has by far the most patent cases per judge. Its not even close anywhere else.