I have no special legal knowledge, but I spent several years within spitting distance of this district, so I know the area, was in the jury pool, and as far as

I have no special legal knowledge, but I spent several years within spitting distance of this district, so I know the area, was in the jury pool, and as far as I know might still be close enough to be called as a juror. Based on that experience, I am inclined to disagree with your general premise. While these lawsuits bring a tiny bit of additional business to directly-related service industries (hotels, copy shops) my observation is that most of the "big money" stays within the legal industry, which is mostly based in the home locations of wherever these companies are. It is further my observation that the East District Court is not unusual in the kind of business that it brings to the surrounding area relative to other district courts (e.g., if not patent lawsuits, other suits) so there isn't much of a desire to protect its reputation as a patent court. Finally while these stories do receive "national attention", this is pretty much entirely within the software development community, and patent lawyers. Ordinary people in East Texas don't follow any stories about patent lawsuits ever. They're boring. Here's a benchmark for you: I am a software developer, who lobbied my congressman about patent law earlier this month, and on the day this lawsuit was filed, I was 45 minutes from the court by car. I am the textbook case of a person who would be following this story. Today is the first day I have ever heard anything about it.