I don't think most people see it as the jurors being "dumb hicks" but rather the jurors (a fair number of whom are likely local business owners) having a vested

I don't think most people see it as the jurors being "dumb hicks" but rather the jurors (a fair number of whom are likely local business owners) having a vested interest in having legal teams from all over the country continue to bring cases to this district to prop up local businesses (which is far more likely to happen if they find for infringement because it the plaintiffs who move the cases there). Wouldn't matter if this sort of thing were happening in NYC or SF (though, practically speaking it would be less likely since the business brought in through the lawsuit treadmill would be far less of the overall local economic pie), it would still be a huge problem. When local jurors find in favor of the plaintiff so often and with a significant amount of those cases being so egregious that circuit courts are later forced to find that "that no reasonable jury could have held the patent valid", then it seems likely there are some fundamental perverse incentives that have to be addressed. [1] see the EFF link that paulgb provided in another post: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/after-setback-texas-fight-against-podcasting-patent-troll-will-continue https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/after-setback-texas-fi...