The federal judge(s?) in East Texas should still be investigated. This was a federally sponsored extortion racket. How can a judge be allowed to interpret patent law so much differently than the rest of the US for so long?
Because, until there's precedent from the Supreme Court, any ambiguities in the law can be interpreted to practically any viable way of interpretation. Further, because of precedent, a single "weird" decision in a given district that comes early becomes effectively binding upon future decisions in that same circuit and lower circuits under its purview.
So as to avoid politics, if the law says "Go to the nearby grocery store to buy some bread. Also, if they have eggs, buy 6," there are two logically valid interpretations (though there may be only one that parses correctly.) A programmer may go to the store, see the eggs, and buy 6 loaves of bread, or he may buy a loaf of bread and 6 eggs.
If the 4th and 6th circuits decide differently, then those precedents are binding within those circuits and in lower circuits, so other cases using similar logic are also binding.
Because it usually takes two circuit courts to disagree (a circuit split) before the Supreme Court will be inclined to hear a case like this, then it means at least two people need to be sued for getting the wrong thing, appeal, and appeal again. Court cases take years, and finding the exact right cases with the exact right plaintiffs takes even longer. Because of that, Circuit A can interpret a statute completely differently than Circuit B for a very long time indeed, and so long as there's some sound, logical underpinning, be completely okay in doing so (though the necessity for soundness is debatable.)
But because the federal circuit has a monopoly on patent cases, there can never be a circuit split, and so they can get away with murder in most cases since the supreme court doesn't have the capacity to review every one of their decisions (the ones they do review, they generally disagree with the federal circuit decisions).
