2017 Second Quarter Litigation Update
1,138 patent cases were filed in the second quarter of 2017, a 18% increase over number of cases filed in the first quarter of 2017. A similar increase from the first to second quarter has happened in each of the previous 4 years. Although the number of cases filed in the first quarter of 2017 was one of the lowest in the last 5 years, the first half of 2017 only trails 2016’s first half by 7%.
Lex Machina Launches Legal Analytics for Employment Litigation
As the next step in bringing Legal Analytics to more areas of the law, Lex Machina has expanded our coverage of employment cases pending January 1, 2009 through the present. Our employment module offers the same ease-of-use and intuitiveness as our other practice areas, but introduces new tags, findings, remedies and damages specific to employment law. Discrimination, Retaliation, Harassment Lex Machina tags employment cases by the nature of the claims asserted, resulting in three (overlapping) categories: discrimination, retaliation, and harassment/ hostile work environment. Discrimination cases involve claims under federal statutes that prohibit adverse employment actions against members of a protected [...]
Lex Machina Launches Legal Analytics for Commercial Litigation
Lex Machina is excited to add over 60,000 cases to our Legal Analytics platform with a new module for commercial litigation. Commercial litigation is the business mainstay of many firms, a concern for nearly any corporation, and a big step for Lex Machina towards making Legal Analytics available across the law. This blog post takes a preliminary look at these cases, and begins by examining the broad overlap of commercial litigation with other practice areas. Next, we look at how commercial litigation is spread across the districts around the country, and why no single district has more than 10% of [...]
SCOTUS Decides TC Heartland Case
On Monday, May 22, 2017, the Supreme Court issued a slip opinion in the case TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group LLC (Dkt. No. 16-341). The court unanimously* held that, under 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) (the statute governing venue in patent suits), a domestic corporation “resides” only in its state of incorporation, consistent with its ruling in an earlier case, Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Products Corp., 353 U. S. 222 (1957). The Court rejected arguments that the general venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c), which was amended post-Fourco and twice since § 1400, overrode the definition of residence [...]
2017 First Quarter Litigation Update
Lex Machina Q1 2017 Litigation Update Patent litigation District Court 938 patent cases were filed in the first quarter of 2017. This was the lowest per-quarter filings of any quarter since 2011 Q3 (although just barely - there were 963 cases filed in Q1 of 2016). From last year’s average of 1130 cases per quarter, Q1 is down about 17%. Despite the low volume, case filings rose month-by-month during the first quarter of 2017 (see Fig. 2), and remain within the pattern established in 2016. Historically, the first quarter has often been lower than the year’s final average. The dramatic [...]
2016 Fourth Quarter Litigation Update
Patent Litigation District Court In the final quarter of 2016, plaintiffs filed 1,140 patent cases, bringing the total for 2016 to 4,520 patent cases. The fourth quarter represents a slight increase over the third quarter’s 1,126 cases, but overall litigation in 2016 has declined by a moderate 22% from 2015 (when 5,823 cases were filed). Month by month, 2016 has been relatively consistent compared to the dramatic spike in 2015 caused by the end of Form 18. Fig. 1: Patent cases filed, 2011 - 2016, by quarter Fig. 2: Patent cases filed, 2011-2016, by year Fig. 3: Patent cases filed, [...]
$2.54b Damages in Idenix Sets New Record
Last week on December 15, a jury in the awarded Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC a record-setting $2.54 billion in damages against Gilead Sciences, Inc. (case no. 1:14-cv-0846 in the District of Delaware). The amount was based on a reasonable royalty theory (finding a 10% rate on a base of $25.4 billion). This is the largest patent award ever by a district court, and the fifth patent award ever over $1 billion (the other four are listed below): $1.725 billion in Boston Scientific v. Cordis (D.Del.), awarded in 2010. Award was a consent judgment. $1.456 billion in Marvell Semiconductor v. Carnegie Mellon [...]
Lex Machina’s Random Acts of Kindness Challenge
In October, Lex Machina wrapped up its annual two-day company retreat. As a running tradition, Owen Byrd, Chief Evangelist & General Counsel, challenged the company with a community kindness outreach project, to make a difference with $100. The members of the Lex Machina team were divided into groups of four with a mission to spend $100 and to contribute 4 hours of time delivering random acts of kindness in our local community. Some of the projects included donating to the Menlo Park Public Library to buy more books for the community, spending time and donating to the Boys and Girls Club of [...]