Familiar names dominate Lex Machina’s list of federal judges who decided the most patent cases on the merits in 2016: J. Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas, Delaware Chief Judge Leonard Stark and Southern California patent veteran James Selna, among others.
But one name on that top 10 list has been hearing patent cases for only three years. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman decided infringement, validity or enforceability nine times in 2016. That included five jury trials, two of which were arguably Silicon Valley’s biggest IP showdowns of the year.
