You have probably heard of the Big 3 of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh and of the impact they made in the NBA this past off season when the three made the decision to join forces on the Miami Heat. Of course most of that impact has been made in the hype more than the product on the court. That is, so far.
But there is another Big 3 who are making an impact on the court as well, just not the basketball type. Much a-do has been said about the trend of patent infringement litigation taking place in East Texas and the appropriately named “patent trolls” who are responsible for the substantial growth of these cases. But the beginning of this trend was due, in part, to three men: Judge T. John Ward of Marshall, Judge Leonard Davis of Tyler, and Judge David Folsom of Texarkana.
These three men have made an impact due to the consistency in which plaintiffs of patent infringements win their cases in their courts. Now, there is no way we can say if these findings are not legitimate, but what we can say is that the perceived favoritism towards these plaintiffs has opened up a can of worms. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, these patent trolls came running for the opportunity to cash in on their strategy of using bought off patents to try and snag other businesses in patent infringements.
And it looks like they have found a home, especially when you consider that in a stretch of 3 years the number of patent infringement cases multiplied almost 20 times! Just like the Miami Heat are finding out about their “Big 3” East Texas is learning that too much of a good thing isn’t always so good.