In December 2011, Rodney Gilstrap took the bench as the U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Texas’ Marshall Division, which has one of the busiest patent dockets in the nation. Texas Lawyer senior reporter John Council caught up with Gilstrap on Oct. 25 at the 2012 Eastern District of Texas’ Bench/Bar Conference in Plano. In the interview, Gilstrap discussed his first year on the job, how the America Invents Act affects his docket and how he ensures the speediness of claims-construction rulings in patent litigation. The discussion appears below, edited for length and style.
Texas Lawyer: Judge, you’ve been on the bench for just about a year, and I think the biggest question everybody has about Judge Gilstrap is: How much are you like your predecessor, T. John Ward, who built up the patent docket in the Marshall Division and made it one of the busiest patent courts in the country? How have you been adjusting to the bench so far?
