In a nutshell, yes, the judges of the Texas federal district courts financially benefit from the volume of patent cases heard before them. One of the Texas fed

In a nutshell, yes, the judges of the Texas federal district courts financially benefit from the volume of patent cases heard before them. One of the Texas federal judges' sons was a patent litigator and the judge did not recuse himself from his son's cases. Another judge owns a hotel and restaurant near the courthouse, and litigants would eat there in an attempt to curry favor. A third judge worked for a patent firm before becoming a judge and refused to recuse himself from cases involving his former firm. There's a reason that patent trolls favor these Texas judges, and it's not because they're competent at the law.