Lex Machina Releases 2023 Patent Litigation Report

While Judge Albright and the Western District of Texas continued to hold onto their leads with the highest numbers of filed patent cases, the data revealed distinct drops in their cases in 2022

Menlo Park, CA — February 15, 2023 —Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Patent Litigation Report. The report examines trends in patent litigation in federal district courts, appellate courts, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Focusing on the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages. The report often focuses on different sets of data, e.g., filtering cases in order to provide analytics on ANDA, PTAB, and federal appellate cases.

“In the practice area of patent litigation, there’s been a lot of discussion and analyses of Judge Albright and the Western District of Texas in recent years,” said Elaine Chow, Lex Machina’s patent legal data expert and editor of the report. “This report really highlights the power of our data and analytics, because it reveals the possible effects of even very recent court orders, which may have contributed to decreases in patent cases before Judge Albright and the Western District of Texas in 2022.”

Findings from the report include:

Highlights in federal district and appellate courts:

In 2022, 3,821 patent cases were filed, continuing the steady trend of patent case filings since 2017.
The Western District of Texas was the most active district in 2022 with 867 patent cases filed, though this number dropped from 2021 in which 981 cases were filed.
Judge Albright was assigned to the highest number of patent cases in 2022 with 678 cases, though this number dropped from 2021 in which he was assigned to 932 cases.
For patent cases filed from 2020 to 2022, Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. was the top plaintiff and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. was the top defendant.
While The Chong Law Firm represented plaintiffs in the highest number of patent cases filed in 2020 to 2022, Fish & Richardson represented defendants in the highest number of cases filed in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
For patent cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2020 to 2022 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 36% were ultimately reversed.

Highlights in PTAB:

The number of PTAB petitions filed continued to hold steady over the past three years.
There was a slight increase in instituted trials compared with the data reported in the 2022 Patent Litigation Report (from 49% to 51%).
For PTAB cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2020 to 2022 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 24% were ultimately reversed.
Samsung was the most active petitioner in PTAB petitions filed during the three-year period from 2020 to 2022.
Fish & Richardson represented parties in the highest number of petitions filed in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Lex Machina’s reports and software enable practitioners to devise data-driven litigation strategies. The metrics in this report can help readers decide who to pursue as clients, whether to file a particular motion, or when to settle (and for how much). This research supplements traditional legal research and anecdotal data for a competitive edge in court.

Patent Litigation Report Webcast
Lex Machina is hosting a webcast to discuss the report on February 15, 2023 at noon ET/9am PT with Michael Connelly (President of WIT Legal), Robin Davis (Chief Investment Officer at Woodsford), Elaine Chow (Lex Machina’s Legal Data Expert in Patent Litigation), and Aria Nejad (Lex Machina’s in-house counsel). Register for the event or view a recording.

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional® provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 10,500 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 20 federal practice areas and a rapidly growing number of state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.

Lex Machina was named “Greater Bay Area Top Workplaces 2022” (The San Francisco Chronicle Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022), “Legal Tech Company of the Year 2021″ (CIO Review, 2021), “2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer” (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the “Media Excellence” Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.