Report: US patent case filings slide again
Patent case filings in the US declined by 10% in 2017, reaching the lowest level of new cases filed since 2011, but pharmaceutical companies are bringing more patent cases, according to a new report.
Legal analytics company Lex Machina, owned by LexisNexis, released its “ Fifth Annual Patent Litigation Year in Review Report” yesterday, February 6. The report uses data from Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics platform to identify key trends in patent litigation over the year.
Case filings have decreased for the third year in a row, with 4,060 being filed in 2017. Over the past decade the highest number of patent case filings occurred in 2013—at 6,129, compared to 2,787 in 2007.
The report noted that “patent litigation is very unevenly distributed between the districts”.
Judge Gilstrap, of Texas, had the most patent cases (550) of any judge for the fifth year in a row, and a total of 866 patent cases were filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Just 52 cases were filed in the Western District of Washington, but this still represented an increase of 108% from the year before.
Litigation related to designs is concentrated in the Central District of California, according to the report. However, despite comprising a smaller proportion of the litigated patents, design litigation remains more “consistent” than utility patent litigation.
In 2017, Lex Machina identified computer security company Uniloc and sport attire brand Sportbrain Holdings as the top two filers, while pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, were also in the top ten.
Samsung was identified as the top defendant in patent litigation in both 2015 and 2016, but pharmaceutical company Teva overtook the electronics manufacturer in 2017. Teva was sued 49 times last year, with Apple ranking second, on 42 cases. Apple was the leading defendant in 2013 and 2014.
“Even as top defendants in 2017, Apple and Samsung have been sued less than the top defendants prior to 2016,” the report noted. It explained Samsung had 37 cases in 2016 and 64 in 2015; Apple had 58 cases in 2014 and 59 in 2013.
The analytics company added that, overall, a total of $763 million was awarded in reasonable royalty damages and $284 million in lost profits across the year. Since 2000, juries have granted roughly six times more in damages than judges.
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