Nearly four dozen law, economics and other university professors from institutions across the nation on Tuesday urged Congress to pass venue reform legislation for patent cases as a way to reduce forum shopping, saying that the disproportionate number of cases in Texas’ Eastern District is bad for the patent system.

In a letter addressed to leaders of Congress, the 45 professors, who hailed from Boston University School of Law, Stanford Law School, the University of California Berkeley School of Law and dozens of others, including the University of Toronto, said that changes to the venue rules are “necessary and urgent” to address the “significant problem of forum shopping” and that Congress must act in order to restore basic fairness, rationality and balance to patent law.

“Venue reform that treats plaintiffs and defendants equally by requiring a substantive connection to the venue on the part of at least one party is critical to ensure fairness and uniformity in patent law,” the professors said.