For those who came in late, for the last decade East Texas has been a popular home for patent trolls who like the fact that its juries lack opposable thumbs and are easy to convince. Trolls have set up “offices” in the town so that they can have their cases heard locally.

It is locally a lucrative industry. The towns of Marshall and Tyler have built an industry out of being super friendly to patent trolls. One judge in East Texas, Judge Rodney Gilstrap, famously handled 20 per cent of all US patent cases filed in the country in 2014.

However, one case is set to put an end to all that and the Supreme Court has thankfully agreed to hear it. The case is not about East Texas, but rather in the second favourite patent troll destination: Delaware.

The case centres on a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in the VE Holding v. Johnson Gas which allowed jurisdiction shopping for patent plaintiffs.

When CAFC got a chance to review this bad decision in hearing the TC Heartland case earlier this year but it could not be bothered. However now the case has been taken to the Supreme Court which is likely to say the law is daft.

If it does then it will mean the end of East Texas (or any particular jurisdiction) being a patent troll heaven.