Patent Assertion Entity Activity

cases involved a single defendant as a party to ten or more cases brought by plaintiffs affiliated with a
single Responding PAE.
Study PAEs Initiated the Greatest Number of Cases in the Eastern District
of Texas and the District of Delaware
Study PAEs initiated cases in more than 50 different federal judicial districts and also filed complaints
leading to investigations before the ITC. Figure 3.7 shows the districts in which Study PAEs initiated
cases. The Eastern District of Texas and the District of Delaware accounted for the largest share of cases
in the study (53% and 22%, respectively). 227 The five next most popular courts (Northern District of
Illinois; Central, Northern and Southern Districts of California; and Northern District of Texas) together
accounted for 14% of the cases in the study. The remaining 45 districts combined accounted for the
remaining 11% of cases. This is consistent with earlier research. 228
227
The District of Delaware and the Eastern District of Texas were leading jurisdictions of choice for both Portfolio PAEs
and Litigation PAEs.
228
See 2015 PWC PATENT LITIGATION STUDY, supra note 6, at 15 (finding that among patent holders generally, the Eastern
District of Virginia, the District of Delaware, and the Eastern District of Texas were the most active districts between 1995–
2014); Press Release, Admin. Office of the U.S. Courts, Patent Cases Rise, With Two Courts Leading the Nation (Apr. 21,
2014), http://www.uscourts.gov/news/2014/04/21/patent-cases-rise-two-courts-leading-nation (finding that “while many
districts show a double-digit increase in the number of patent filings in 2012–2013, the District of Delaware and the Eastern
District of Texas saw the largest growth in patent cases, respectively, at 364 and 275 filings,” and that in 2013, patent cases
“made up 63 percent of the [District of Delaware’s] civil caseload.”); 2013 GAO REPORT, supra note 2, at 24 (finding that
between 2007 to 2011, PMEs “filed more lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas than other types of plaintiffs”); id. at 2
(noting that a patent monetization entity (PME) is an entity that “buy[s] patents from others for the purpose of asserting them
for profit.” This definition is nearly equivalent to the FTC’s definition of a PAE).
80