Understanding the Realities of Modern Patent Litigation

Details

Author(s):
Publish Date:
June, 2014
Publication Title:
Texas Law Review
Format:
Journal Article Volume 92 Issue 7
Citation(s):
  • John R. Allison, Mark A. Lemley & David L. Schwartz, Understanding the Realities of Modern Patent Litigation, 92 Texas Law Review 1769 (2014) (part of the symposium: Steps Toward Evidence-Based IP) (also Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 2442451 & Chicago-Kent College of Law Research Paper No. 2014-2 (2014)).
Related Organization(s):

Abstract

Sixteen years ago, two of us published the first detailed empirical look at patent litigation. In this Article, we update and expand the earlier study with a new hand-coded data set. We evaluate all substantive decisions rendered by any court in every patent case filed in 2008 and 2009 — decisions made between 2009 and 2013. We consider not just patent validity but also infringement and unenforceability. Moreover, we relate the outcomes of those cases to a host of variables, including variables related to the parties, the patents, and the courts in which those cases were litigated. The result is a comprehensive picture of the outcomes of modern patent litigation, one that confirms conventional wisdom in some respects but upends it in others. In particular, we find a surprising amount of continuity in the basic outcomes of patent lawsuits over the past twenty years, despite rather dramatic changes in who brought patent suits during that time.