Today is an exciting day for Lex Machina, as we announce our efforts to support the American innovation community through a new initiative to provide free, […]
Reference line at 322 cases, representing January 2014 level.
In January, 2014, plaintiffs filed 322 new patent cases in U.S. district courts.
This total represents a sharp drop in total filings, both when compared to the prior month of December, 2013 (427) and […]
Although patent litigation has been on the rise over the past decade, the number of successful grants of attorneys fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 has not tracked this rise, and remains low. Lower still are the number of successful grants based on litigation misconduct or frivolous, bad faith litigation, […]
We offer the first comprehensive look at how a district judge’s experience affects decisionmaking in patent cases. We find that that there is a strong, statistically significant relationship between a judge’s experience and case outcome: more experienced judges are less likely to rule for the patentee. Notably, the relationship exists […]
While the main theoretical benefit of patent protection is increased innovation, some assert a swamped U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted an inefficiently large number of patents with negligible innovation value. This Article tests this argument’s plausibility and determines the characteristics of patents without innovation by analyzing 980 litigated […]
“FAs recognition of the value of patents has increased dramatically over the past decade, so too has the amount of litigation associated with patent enforcement and validity challenges before U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), and before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) In response to […]
Attorney bargaining has traditionally taken place in the shadow of trial, as litigants alter their pretrial behavior — including their willingness to negotiate a settlement — based on perceptions of likely outcomes at trial and anticipated litigation costs. Lawyers practicing in the shadow of trial have, in turn, traditionally formed […]
Imagine if you could make a data-driven prediction about how opposing counsel, or a judge, or a party to litigation or a transaction, will behave. Or what results a specific legal strategy or argument will produce. Would you continue to rely exclusively on traditional […]
Any discussion of flaws in the United States patent system inevitably turns to the system’s modern villain: non-practicing entities, known more colorfully as patent trolls. For many years, however, discussions about non practicing entities have been long on speculation and short on data.