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."
James Rodney Gilstrap
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
Born 1957 in Pensacola, FL
FJC ID: 3407
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 2/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 7/year
Texas Eastern District Court · 2011–
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Private practice, Marshall, Texas1981–2011
- Harrison County [Texas] CourtJudge · 1989–2002
Appointments
2011–present · Appointed by Barack Obama (Democratic)
Education
- Baylor University School of LawJ.D. · 1981
- Baylor UniversityB.A. · 1978