On May 19, 2022, Lex Machina hosted a webcast on the recently released Patent Report 2022. The webcast featured guest speakers Michael Flynn (Partner in intellectual property litigation at Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell) and Elaine Chow (author of the report and Lex Machina’s Patent Legal Data Expert), moderated by Joshua Harvey (Manager of Lex Machina’s Customer Success Team). They discussed overarching trends in patent litigation including cases filed (including ANDA and PTAB case filings), active districts, judges, law firms, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages. They also discussed outcome trends in patent litigation in the federal courts of appeals. Their analysis focused on demonstrating how using Legal Analytics can enhance your practice when litigating patent disputes.
“This is always really one of our most popular webcasts and reports,” Joshua Harvey noted. “And this year, it’s even more exciting, because for the first time ever, we’re able to include appellate analytics in this report. So this is a huge step in Legal Analytics, a huge step for Lex Machina. We’re the only company that can show you what really happened in a case from its filing in court through the end of an appeal. This is really a game changer in Legal Analytics and we’re very excited to be able to incorporate that into this report and into this webcast today.”
Elaine Chow observed, “There are additional details in the report, but patent appeals cases from District Court that terminated in the last three years with a decision on the merits of the appeal, had a 34% reversal rate. Michael, I have to admit here, I was a little surprised by this, if only because I remember being told that there was a “coin’s flip” chance of prevailing at the Federal Circuit, if you appealed.”
“Yeah, I think that certainly was true, probably 10 years ago,” Michael Flynn agreed. “Again, I think the change is driven a lot by the increase in IPR filings. So you’re getting more invalidity
decisions out of the PTAB that go to appeal, and fewer District Court invalidity decisions. And I think just generally, the Fed Circuit is less likely to reverse on infringement for a damages issue that may come up. So, again, I think it’s very likely because of the increase in the IPR filings.”
“We use Lex Machina a lot to look at the timing for decisions, to look at how our judges are resolving cases,” Michael added later. “ . . . . Certainly when you’re looking at individual judge’s statistics, or when we’re looking at some of the high-volume plaintiffs that we’re working against to see how motions have fared in other courts. It’s a great tool and I kind of geek out on diving into the numbers a little bit.”
Listen to a recording of the webcast or read the transcript.