J. Rodney Gilstrap

(Redirected from James Rodney Gilstrap )

James Rodney Gilstrap (born May 1, 1957) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas . He is notable for presiding over more than one quarter of all patent infringement cases filed in the nation and is often referred to by various sources as the country's single "busiest patent judge."

Contents

• 1 Early life and education

• 2 Career

  • 2.1 Federal judicial service

• 3 Patent law experience

  • 3.1 The busiest patent judge in the country

  • 3.2 Notable patent decisions

  • 3.3 Notable non-patent decisions

  • 3.4 Recusal controversy

• 4 References

• 5 External links

Early life and education

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._Rodney_Gilstrap&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Early life and education")

Gilstrap was born in Pensacola, Florida . He is an Eagle Scout . He received a Bachelor of Arts from Baylor University in 1978, where he graduated magna cum laude. As an undergraduate he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa . He also earned a Juris Doctor from Baylor Law School in 1981, where he was associate editor of the Baylor Law Review. While on the review, he published the article Video Recorders: Copyright Infringement, 33 Baylor Law Review 695 (1981). Gilstrap later served as president of the Baylor Law Alumni Association.

Career

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._Rodney_Gilstrap&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Career")

After graduation from law school, Gilstrap entered private practice in the town of Marshall, Texas as an Associate with the firm of Abney, Baldwin & Searcy from 1981 to 1984.

He later became a founding Partner of Smith & Gilstrap in Marshall from 1984 to 1989, where his practice covered oil and gas, real estate , probate law and occasionally patent cases .

Among the patent cases Gilstrap worked on while at Smith & Gilstrap included defending Capital One Financial Corporation in a patent suit brought by LML Patent Corporation alleging patent infringement by several banks on patents covering payment services and the representation of a company called Bluestone Innovations Texas in a patent infringement suit brought against a number of foreign companies involving Light-emitting diodes (or LED ) technology. Gilstrap served as a Harrison County Judge from 1989 to 2002. Gilstrap also served 16 years on the Courthouse Preservation Council in Marshall, and also served as the Chair of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee with the State Bar of Texas. In 2004, Gilstrap co-authored an article with Leland de la Garza which appeared in the Texas Bar Journal : UPL: Unlicensed, Unwanted and Unwelcome 67 Texas Bar Journal 798 (2004). While and after serving as a Harrison County Judge, Gilstrap was practicing at Smith & Gilstrap until he became appointed to the federal bench in 2011.

Federal judicial service

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._Rodney_Gilstrap&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Federal judicial service")

On May 19, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Gilstrap to a seat on United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas .

Gilstrap was rated as Unanimously Qualified by the American Bar Association and had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 28, 2011. On September 15, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported his nomination to the Senate floor by voice vote. The Senate confirmed his nomination by voice vote on December 5, 2011. He received his commission on December 6, 2011. He became the chief judge on March 1, 2018, after Ron Clark assumed senior status .

Patent law experience

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._Rodney_Gilstrap&action=edit&section=4 "Edit section: Patent law experience")

The busiest patent judge in the country

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._Rodney_Gilstrap&action=edit&section=5 "Edit section: The busiest patent judge in the country")

According to Lex Machina and other sources, Gilstrap is the United States district judge that hears the most patent cases in the country and has been referred to by many sources as the nation's single "busiest patent judge".

In 2016, for example, 1,119 cases were brought before Gilstrap, who saw more new cases than the next 10 highest ranking judges – 2016 was also the fourth year in a row where Gilstrap had more patent cases than any other federal judge

…