We analyze the effect of judge shopping in patent litigation following the appointment of a former patent litigator as the sole district judge assigned to the Waco Division of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas (WDTX). We find that patent enforcers’ ability to select, with certainty, a judge widely regarded as patentee-friendly increased the number of cases filed, especially by non-practicing entities. We show that the increase in litigation was driven by both an influx of cases that would not have been filed but for the judge’s appointment and a geographic reallocation of cases that would have been filed regardless. Overall, judge shopping in the WDTX induced over a 33-month period an increase of around 460 patent cases that otherwise would not have been filed. (JEL: K41, O34).

中文翻译：

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欢迎来到韦科！法官选择对诉讼的影响

我们分析了在任命前专利诉讼律师为美国德克萨斯州西区地方法院 (WDTX) 韦科分院的唯一地区法官后，专利诉讼中法官选择的影响。我们发现，专利执法者能够确定地选择被广泛认为对专利权人友好的法官，从而增加了提起的案件数量，尤其是非执业实体提起的案件数量。我们表明，诉讼数量的增加是由于如果没有法官的任命就不会提起的案件大量涌入以及无论如何都会提起的案件的地理重新分配造成的。总体而言，法官在 WDTX 中的选择导致在 33 个月的时间内增加了约 460 件专利案件，否则这些案件不会被提起。（JEL：K41、O34）。