Retired Texas Judge to Argue Patent Cases in His Old Court

And some folks wondered why the latest Judicial Hellholes report placed the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (ED Texas) — and all the patent trolls who flock to it — at the top of its Watch List.  Well, wonder no more.

As reported earlier this month by the Texas Lawyer’s “Tex Parte Blog,” recently retired ED Texas Judge T. John Ward, the man arguably most reponsible for turning the once sleepy rural court into the center of the patent litigation universe, is coming back to the court to argue patent cases as a plaintiffs’ attorney.  You read that right.  

Ward took little time in retirement before joining his son’s thriving patent practice, Ward & Smith in Longview, as a partner.  Nothing like small-town justice.