Who would have ever thought that doing your civic duty would have such grave consequences? What started out as the citizens of East Texas simply fulfilling an oath to judge justly without prejudice has escalated into a gold rush of litigation battles and unethical business behavior.
Unaware for many years, the townsfolk of Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler have become known to the legal world as having a higher percentage of deciding for plaintiffs of patent infringement cases than most other court circuits across the nation.
This has been attributed to things such as an older age group in the jury and a stronger stand on property rights, that is “what is yours is yours”. Unfortunately, some people have seen this standard as a way to turn a profit.
Namely, these people are what they call “patent trolls”. Patent trolls are companies who purchase patents from struggling businesses or firms without any plans on manufacturing the invention or technology.
Their sole use of the patent is to target any businesses that have technology or a service that might infringe on the patent in order to file a lawsuit against them for infringement.
Of course, these “patent trolls” need a feeding ground to survive and they have found that in East Texas. And it seems they are “feeding” well. Since 2003 the number of patent litigation cases in these court houses has more than quadrupled.
They only other location outside of East Texas that has hosted close to that amount of cases is Los Angeles. It’s sad to see how an unselfish act like serving in a jury has resulted in the selfish pursuit of unearned wealth.
So, next time you receive a jury summons, let’s hope your act of civil service does more to serve than not.
Set the threat level at red, East Texas, because you are under attack. Knowingly or unknowingly, East Texas has been harboring, what we can call, “economic terrorists”.