AND PATENT DRAFTER AS COURT JESTER
Patent litigation is the sport of kings, surmises an article in the MIT Enterprises’ Technology Review. Why? Simple math – most patent lawsuits cost upwards of 1 million to prosecute and defend. Refering to statistics from the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA):
Patent litigation is a growth industry. According to the American Intellectual Property Law Association, in cases where between $1 million and $25 million is at risk, a patent owner should expect to spend more than $2 million to litigate a patent through trial and appeal. Where more than $25 million is at risk, costs climb above $4 million. All this, to litigate a patent that an attorney likely wrote in a week or two, and that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office probably spent less than 20 hours examining.
But the specter of such costly outlays of time and money has not seemed to stem the tide. During the twelve-month period ending September 9, 2003, U.S. patent owners filed 2,788 patent infringement lawsuits, a 13 percent increase over the same period five years earlier. Similarly, in 2003 the United States issued 187,487 patents, a 22 percent increase over 1999. Patent litigation has become the sport of kings.
The real interesting tidbit, is that the authors mention that patent lawsuits strike absolute fear in the hearts of business people. With the amount of money patent infringement lawsuits drain from corporations (including lost opportunity costs as well all or nothing judgments) is it any wonder why most patent infringement lawsuits settle?
You may be interested in reading the following related posts:
- U.S. LEADS IN PCT PATENT
- Time For Patent Reform? – Town Hall Meetings Scheduled
- defending IP – what is it worth
- SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES PTO ANTI-FEE DIVERSION BILL
- Legal Imperatives on Intellectual Property Management
Posted by Douglas Sorocco, April 28, 2004 at 3:54 pm
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