Patent Pilot Program Could Cut Litigation Costs
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In 2011, Congress created a program designed to streamline district court patent cases. One aim of the Patent Pilot Program was to reduce the high cost of patent litigation. The idea was to foster a greater level of specialization in technical and procedural issues unique to patent matters among certain judges. The rationale was simple: judges who more regularly hear patent cases will be better equipped to efficiently and correctly resolve complex issues—such as the meaning of technical terms during claim construction.
The natural question: Is it working? A government report on the program is not due until 2016. But, based on three years of available data, it appears that the program is achieving at least some of its goals.
By way of background, the Patent Pilot Program modifies case assignment to allow judges who have identified themselves as “patent judges” to accept patent matters from judges who opt to trade away such cases. “Non-patent judges” in participating districts have the option to transfer a new patent matter to a patent judge within 30 days of the initial assignment. The patent judge to whom the case is randomly assigned may in turn reject the case within five days of the reassignment. If all of the patent judges in the district reject the case, it returns to the judge to whom it was initially randomly assigned. Patent judges are not permitted to transfer patent cases that land on their docket through the normal course of random case assignment. The mandatory five- and 10-year reports referenced above will analyze, among other things, whether patent judges are reversed less often than their peers on substantive patent law issues and whether they dispose of patent cases faster than non-patent judges.
Read more: www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202656204724/Patent-Pilot-Program-Could-Cut-Litigation-Costs#ixzz32RR5mbgL
Read original articleTags: Patent Cases, patent litigation
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