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Patent filings in federal courts jumped 19% year over year in 2025, according to an IAM report. The Eastern District of Texas, with courthouses scattered across Marshall, Tyler, and Plano, led all U.S. districts for overall patent litigation in the first quarter of that year.
That’s a comeback. After the Supreme Court’s 2017 ruling in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC tightened venue rules for patent cases, filings in the Eastern District dropped. Patent holders couldn’t file wherever they chose anymore; they had to bring cases where the defendant was incorporated or had a regular business establishment. The restriction sent cases scattering to Delaware, the Western District of Texas, and other venues. Now the numbers have swung back.
AZA Law’s IP Practice
AZA Law, the Houston trial firm where Todd Mensing is a named partner, watched those filing trends and made a decision. In January 2026, the firm opened its first office outside Houston, taking space at the Trammell Crow Center in Dallas.
The IP caseload drove the move. Jason McManis, who leads AZA’s intellectual property practice, had teamed with incoming Dallas managing partner Warren McCarty for a September 2025 patent infringement trial in the Eastern District. Jurors awarded their client, Anonymous Media Research Holdings, the full $78,512,999 it requested from Samsung Electronics.
“In that trial, we dominated,” McCarty told The Texas Lawbook. “Through that process, I learned a lot about AZA and it’s a true trial firm and the attorneys and staff are immensely talented, world-class trial attorneys.”
Rebuilding After Departures
AZA’s IP bench didn’t grow in a straight line. Two name partners who’d focused on intellectual property left the firm in March 2022 to start their own boutique, and several attorneys followed.
“It has taken us three years to build that practice back up, numbers wise, to where it was before,” co-founding partner John Zavitsanos told The Texas Lawbook.
McCarty’s hire from Dallas-based Caldwell Cassady and Curry was part of that rebuild. So was recruiting Kyle Poelker, an existing AZA partner who relocated from Houston to lead commercial litigation in Dallas.
AZA Law now carries more than 60 attorneys across Houston and Dallas, with the Dallas office targeting 10 attorneys by end of 2026. Todd Mensing remains a key figure in the firm’s energy litigation practice, which continues to produce results alongside the growing IP portfolio.
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