Lex Machina Releases First Annual Patent Litigation Review

MENLO PARK, CA–(Marketwired – May 13, 2014) – Today Lex Machina released its first annual Patent Litigation Year in Review report, offering unique insights about judges, districts, parties, law firms, patents, and more. The report focuses on the most important trends and developments in patent litigation during 2013, carefully researched and compiled using Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics platform that enables lawyers to craft successful strategies, win cases, and close business.

From Silicon Valley to the Supreme Court, patents have become an inescapable part of the corporate and political landscapes in America. This year alone, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the highest proportion of IP cases in history. The patent caseload of the district courts has more than doubled since 2008, and verdicts like Apple-Samsung have captured headlines with eye-popping damages.

Despite the increasing number of arguments and lawsuits, there’s a lack of reliable, unbiased data on the patterns and trends about patent litigation in America.

“It’s critical for lawyers to make sense of the major trends in this space in order to be successful in their own suits,” said Josh Becker, CEO Lex Machina.

Lex Machina analyzes raw data from PACER and EDIS and creates data sets never before available about judges, lawyers, parties, and patents, ensuring completeness and consistency. For example, the PACER code for patent cases over-includes false marking cases, but may fail to capture patent cases brought alongside contract, trademark, or trade-secret claims. This level of analysis allows Lex Machina to build reliable and rich metadata, such as time-to-trial, top firms, and most-litigated patents.

Highlights from the new 2013 Patent Litigation Year in Review include:

• New Cases: 6,092 filed, a 12.4% increase over 2012.
• Districts: Significant increases in cases filed in Eastern District of Texas and Delaware; greatest decrease in Central District of California.
• Judges: Rodney Gilstrap assigned 941 new cases in Eastern District of Texas, no other judge in any district assigned more than 400.
• Law Firms: Fish & Richardson, with 308 cases, led all national law firms ranked by open cases (filed 2009-2013).
• Plaintiffs: All top 10 plaintiffs are patent monetization entities; Melvino/ArrivalStar, Wyncomm and Thermolife each filed more than 100 cases; 7 of 10 top plaintiffs with most patents asserted in open cases are operating companies, including Ericsson, Finisar, Motorola Mobility, Apple, Phillips and Pfizer.
• Defendants: Apple named in 59 new cases; Amazon, AT&T, Google, Dell, HTC, Samsung, Microsoft, LG and HP round out the top 10.
• Patents: 4,917 asserted; ArrivalStar and Melvio jointly asserted 6 of the 10 most frequently asserted patents, all involving systems for monitoring or tracking vehicle status, travel or proximity.
• Damages: Size of awards continues to go up; average increased 28%, median increased 22%.
• ITC: New investigations stabilized at 41, close to 2012’s 42, after spiking to 70 in 2011

Download the 2013 Patent Litigation Year in Review to see all the data and analysis.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina is defining Legal Analytics, a new category of legal technology that is revolutionizing how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. Delivered as Software-as a-Service, Lex Machina creates structured data sets covering judges, lawyers, parties, and patents out of millions of pages of legal information. This allows law firms and companies for the first time ever to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to craft successful strategies, win cases and close business.

Lex Machina has more than 100 customers, including companies like Google and eBay and law firms like Wilson Sonsini and Fenwick & West. The company is supported by top tech companies and law firms, and was created by experts at Stanford’s Computer Science Department and Law School.