On April 12th, legal data analytics firm Lex Machina released a litigation update report for the first quarter of 2017 which highlights trends in intellectual property suits being filed in U.S. district courts. One of the key findings is that only 938 patent infringement actions were filed in district courts during the recent quarter, a total which is the lowest for a single quarter since the third quarter of 2011 when only 921 such cases were filed.

Although that data point sounds significant, Lex Machina data scientist Brian Howard notes that this results fits well within a pattern in patent litigation which has played out in recent years. “Generally, when people see the words ‘new low in litigation level,’ they assume that litigation fell off of a cliff,” Howard said. “That’s not the case here.” The most recent quarter almost saw as many cases filed as the first quarter of 2016, when 963 patent infringement cases were filed in U.S. district courts. Howard also noted that, in recent years, the first quarter of the calendar year typically sees a drop in the number of cases filed from the total number filed in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

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