The map of patent litigation is shifting, and the Northern District of California is gaining ground.

A confluence of legislative reform and new case law has made it easier for companies slapped with patent infringement lawsuits to get out of the sticky Eastern District of Texas. Many of them are taking their cases West.

More than a quarter of all patent cases that have been transferred so far in 2013 landed in the Northern District of California, and 36 percent were sent to federal courts statewide, according to The Recorder’s analysis of IP litigation data compiled by Lex Machina. Just this month, Google, Apple, Twitter and Facebook each yanked suits back to the Bay Area, seizing the chance to wage IP battles on their home turf.

The influx of cases means more work for area judges, less travel for the region’s busy IP litigators, and a docket that includes more of the troll-style litigation that had previously been centered in Texas.

It’s a trend that Dallas-based McKool Smith saw coming when it decided to open an office in Silicon Valley last year.

“Now that the cases are being moved to where the innovators and the defendants are, that’s going to make California over time perhaps the most important place for patent litigation,” said Courtland Reichman, who launched the office.

Judges have transferred just four cases out of the Northern District so far this year. Meanwhile, more than 50 suits rushed in, the majority from Texas’ Eastern District.

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