As the article points out, ths centralization is a byproduct of Judge Ward, of necessity, having "built a better mousetrap" in terms of court rules for processing cases. As is customary in federal courts, when Judge Ward first became a judge, his initial case load was built by the court's other judges transferring the cases they didn't especially want to deal with; this included most of their patent cases. So Judge Ward found himself inundated with patent cases, and needed to figure out a way to keep up. Looking around for ideas, he adapted court rules that had been developed in the Northern District of California, which encompasses San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Those court rules, plus the low numbers of federal-crime cases in that rural division (by law, criminal cases get priority), meant that Judge Ward got his patent cases to trial quickly. This attracted plaintiffs wanting just such speedy "service."