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):