Judge T. John Ward, king of the patent docket, will take senior status

While patrolling the Eastern Division of Texas last week for scoops (found one right here!), I stopped by the chambers of U.S. District Judge T. John Ward (pictured) for a hello. He told me something that is not much of a secret among lawyers who flock to Ward’s Marshall Division to file patent cases: Ward says he’s taking senior status on Oct. 1, 2011. Ward says he’ll turn 68 years old then and it’s just time. While his senior status is a ways off (he hasn’t sent his notification letter to President Barack Obama yet, he says), Ward doesn’t know how heavy a docket he’ll keep when he moves away from active status. “I haven’t made any decisions,” he says. An appointee of President Bill Clinton, Ward took the bench on Sept. 24, 1999, and set up patent–litigation friendly discovery rules that made the Marshall Division a magnet for intellectual property litigation. He’s the main reason why, on any week day, BMW 7 Series luxury sedans are parked alongside pickup trucks outside the small federal courthouse in Marshall where Ward holds court.
--- John Council