Trends in patent complaints

Prof. Paul Janicke at the University of Houston Law Center is an expert on patent litigation statistics. He recently sent me a note about some recent trends in the filing of patent complaints.

Over the last three years, patent lawsuit filings have been fairly steady at around 2,700 annually. This year to date they seemed on track to stay at that level or a little higher, with filings through Oct. 31 standing at 2,327. However, filings in recent months are down about 20%, possibly due to the general financial conditions of September and October.

Patent Suits filed in September and October (all districts):

Year	Filings in Sept.-Oct.
2008	409
2007	513
2006	486

Eastern District of Texas patent suit filings in September and October:

Year	ED Tex Filings in Sept.-Oct.
2008	55
2007	68
2006	59

Comments

[Steve M]

Will be interesting to see if this apparent decrease in filings continues as we enter and proceed through this recession.

Could fewer filings mean patent holders have less money to litigate and/or are (therefore) choosing to be more selective about which inventions they want to assert ... or are they simply too busy putting out financial and "business problem" fires to devote the time & energy they normally do to this pursuit?

[curious]

I think that KSR has slowed down the filings.

[Just an ordinary inventor(TM)]

Recession?, recession?, why, the market gained about a thousand points today in only a few hours!

[anonymousAgent]

If you REALLY want to lower the number of patent lawsuits, just tack on a $750,000 patent lawsuit filing fee.
Maybe I can write an "academic" paper about this.

[Just an ordinary inventor(TM)]

Sure, Timmy W. would vote for that, and I'd bet he'd help you write the academic paper too.

[Malcolm Mooney]

"Recession?, recession?, why, the market gained about a thousand points today in only a few hours!"

That's because the coffee at the Starbucks across the street was extra strong today.

[Just an ordinary white rabbit(TM)]

Just you watch "GPIC" tomorrow -- guaranteed to close $2 higher or your money back -- Just pay shipping [õ¿Q]

[AllSeeingEye]

Hmmm. I didn't think they put Starbucks so close to the state facilities. Then again, I guess that's why Starbucks profits are down close to 100%.

[curious]

it looks like all of the hand-wringing about exploding numbers of patent litigation filings was for naught

[Roger Karp]

Bilski

[AllSeeingEye]

Well said Roger.

[Leopold Bloom]

"Bilski"

Baloney. From what I've seen of EDTX patent litigation, many of the plaintiffs aren't particularly concerned about validity. And besides, how many litigated patents have only method claims in them? Bilski says NOTHING about apparatus claims, as the BPAI just acknowledged.

[Doug M]

Gee two months. That certainly proves a trend.
By the way, it's unusually cold here today; I guess Global Warming is just a myth.

[JAO mislabeled mark]

GPIC is the definition of a thinly-traded stock that hinders price transparency. Its volume has nosedived in the past month from ~200,000 to around 7,000. Sticking to the topic is probably a good idea for JAOwr.

[question]

Can someone tell me why the Eastern District of Texas is so special? Maybe a link with a report or something?

[big hairy rat]

When the host dies, the parasites die with it. With fewer profitable companies to leach off it is inevitable that there are fewer leaches.

[Leopold Bloom]

"When the host dies, the parasites die with it. With fewer profitable companies to leach off it is inevitable that there are fewer leaches."

I don't think that explains it either, bhr. Leeches don't stop sucking simply because the host is unhealthy. Similarly, patent plaintiffs don't need profitable targets, just targets with any revenues at all. There are still plenty of those around.

[Just an ordinary inventor(TM)]

Dear question,

I understand the Courts in the EDTX adhere to the rule of laws stemming from the Constitution and show deference to intellectual property rights. Other Courts seem to whimsically take liberty and do whatever is politically expedient so as to not rock the big guy’s boats. Try googling the Eastern District of Texas.

[Richard]

I wonder where he got his figures from. I ran a search in PACER for Sept-Oct 2008 and came up with 436 patent cases filed.

And I wonder whether he combined Sept and Oct to hide the fact that October (236) was higher than Sept (200).

[no patents at all]

BHR,

I like the leach analogy.

Taking that same logic further, let's kill all leaches by killing anything the leaches may attach themselves to.