N.D. Illinois 2008 Year in Review

Posted on January 15, 2009 by R. David Donoghue

2008 was another busy IP year for the Northern District of Illinois.  Once again, there was an increase in patent case filings, and the Northern District continues to be among the top five patent dockets in the country and the most active district court in the Seventh Circuit by far.  Trademark cases were steady, with only two fewer filings than in 2007.  And as with its patent docket, the Northern District's trademark docket continues to be one of the five most active in the country.  Finally, copyright cases continued a relatively steep decline.  But despite the decline, the Northern District maintains one of the most active copyright dockets outside of California and the Southern District of New York.  This chart shows the number of yearly patent, trademark and copyright cases filed in the Northern District during calendar years 2006 through 2008 (data gathered from the Stanford IP Clearinghouse):

2008 Northern District IP Case Filings
Case Type 2006 2007 2008
Patent 126 141 151
Trademark 136 130 128
Copyright 194 123 81

 

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New Stanford Statistics Database Confirms Common Knowledge re Litigation Trends

Posted on December 24, 2008 by R. David Donoghue

The Stanford Law School launched its Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse (“IPLC”) earlier this month – click here to go to the site (registration required).  The IPLC is a  searchable database of IP lawsuit filings and outcomes since 2000, at least for patents, trade secret, trademark and copyright information is currently a bit more limited.  IPLC shows that patent cases have remained relatively constant during this decade, but that the number of patent defendants has increased dramatically. It also proves what Northern District litigators already know, the vast majority of Northern District cases, 86%, settle (this figure includes consent judgments). 1% of cases are resolved on procedural issues. That leaves about 12% of cases to be decided on the merits. Defendants win two-thirds of those cases, 8%, and plaintiffs win the remainder, 4%.

 

 

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