Delaware and Eastern Texas still most popular jurisdictions with NPEs, finds report
The US District of Delaware and Eastern District of Texas remained the most popular districts for litigation brought by non-practicing entities (NPEs) in 2018, according to a new report by patent risk management provider RPX.
The report, which was released yesterday, April 10, said the top filers of patent suits in 2018 had been the same as the year previous, naming IP Edge and Leigh M Rothschild as the most active.
It said this was a continuation of the trend observed since TC Heartland v Kraft Foods Group Brands.
In TC Heartland, the US Supreme Court held that rather than potentially residing anywhere in the US, a company only resides in one state. As a result, patent litigation against that company could only be brought in that jurisdiction.
The report said that nationally, six out of ten patent cases that went to jury trials resulted in a victory for the plaintiffs.
“The District of Delaware and the Northern District of California closely follow this trend, while the Eastern District of Texas has historically been more balanced than the nationwide average, with about half of jury verdicts favoring defendants,” the report said.
In contrast, an overview of Chinese patent litigation for the same year shows that plaintiffs won a bigger majority of cases, while defendants only won approximately 20% of the time.
Additionally, RPX said, in 2018, district courts across the US invalidated claims in approximately 64% of all patents challenged under the Alice/Mayo test.
The test stems from the 2014 SCOTUS ruling in Alice v CLS Bank and sets out guidelines for determining whether an invention is patent eligible.
Among the districts that handed down the most Alice rulings per patent, Delaware invalidated claims in 60% of the patents challenged, while the overall invalidation rate of the Eastern District of Texas was 50%.
The report also looked at damages and injunctions granted in 2018.
In NPE litigation, the median compensatory damages awarded per case from 2013 to 2018 was around $2 million.
According to the report, since 2013, only 400 requests for injunctions have been fully briefed and adjudicated.
RPX found the Eastern District of Texas granted injunctions to 23% of companies who applied for one, a far lower rate than the District of Delaware (62%) or the Northern District of California (49%).
Damages awarded in China were also much lower than those seen in US patent cases, with the overwhelming majority amounting to $100,000 or less.
In contrast, injunction rates were much higher in Chinese patent cases than for those in the US. When the plaintiff prevailed, an injunction was issued more than 90% of the time.
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