Markman has remarkably quickly become the heart of almost every patent lawsuit. Very few patent cases go to trial: 98% either settle or are decided on summary judgment. … According to a search conducted February 24, 2009, via Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse, lexmachina.stanford.edu, 446 of the 24,307 patent cases filed between 2008 and February 2009, or 1.8%, went to jury verdict. This number likely understates the number of cases that went to trial, both because the denominator includes pending cases that might go to trial and because some patent cases, such as pharmaceutical suits against generics, go to bench trial instead. But this number is likely in the right range.
