Jurisdiction is a huge factor when filing suits. IP lawyers do their best to move cases into Tyler, TX (or other backwoods cities) where the judges don't understand technology whatsoever. A popular tactic is to shake down porn companies for money using nuisance patent suits.
Do you really think it is because they supposedly don't understand technology? I've read that they are simply particularly "sympathetic" to patents over there, which is why there are a host of patent trolls / NPEs that have their mail address over there. This American Life had a good episode about it.
Another popular tactic: Suing porn companies to be granted standing (all the conservative judges in the South will gladly hear cases that cost porn companies money), then add defendants that you want to shake down. In the past, patent trolls have done this with Google/Microsoft/etc, but apparently these large companies have been fighting back or (more commonly) lobbying to get patent troll applications violated, so the nuisance patent trolls tend to stick to small companies they can easily shake down for a $20,000 "licensing fee."
A close friend of mine defends major smartphone companies as well as other tech companies. He's told me the average presiding judge has no idea how to connect to the Internet, much less understand JPG compression (an actual case my friend worked on).
I don't think the judges over there are substantially more ignorant about technology than the average judge in Kentucky or Montana, etc. They can call in experts to advise on technical questions. I'm afraid technical knowledge wouldn't help much, they have this cottage industry of patent lawsuits and they'd probably prefer things to stay as they are.
I've head from lawyers that East Texas became the place to patent lawsuits mostly because the War on Drugs. It was much easier to get the courts' time for civil trials or motions before they were overloaded with constant criminal prosecution. East Texas happened to have a lower load at the beginning or some townships spotted an opportunity to bring in some more business by making themselves attractive to litigators. Either way, the reasoning things are filed in East Texas has more to do with it being the Silicon Valley of patent trolling than any kind of venue shopping.
