2014 has ended, though perhaps not yet for many court clerks who will continue entering paperwork from their backlog for another week or so, if history is a guide. These numbers are therefore preliminary and can be expected to rise slightly as the backlog is processed.
441 new patent cases were filed in December, rising 32% from November 2014’s total of 335. These filings brought the total for 2014 to 5,010 new cases, an 18% decrease from the 6,083 new cases filed in 2013.
Fig. 1: Patent cases filed in 2014 by month
December 2014 will likely wind up with a total not far off from December 2013, which finished with 423 new cases filed.
Fig. 2: Patent cases filed in 2013-2014 by month.
Looking at the data cumulatively, it’s clear that a busy December 2014 was not enough to make up for a quieter summer and fall, relative to 2013.
Fig. 3: Patent cases filed, cumulative, in 2013-2014 by month.
Fig. 4: Patent cases filed in 2011-2014 by year
Fig. 5: Patent cases filed in 2011-2014 by month.
Will the lower levels of the last 8 months become the new norm? We’ll keep you posted in 2015.