Patent litigation declining
Julie Carlson 5/6, Director of Economic Strategy at Qualcomm, was an advisor to Chairman Joseph Simons, Commissioner William Kovacic, and BE Director Marta Wosinska, was as an assistant professor of economics at Trinity University, Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University, “New Data Show There Is a Problem with the U.S. Patent System—But It’s Not Patent Trolls”, IP Watchdog, https://ipwatchdog.com/2024/05/06/new-data-show-problem-us-patent-system-not-patent-trolls/id=176149/, May 6, 2024
The first graph in the report clearly dispels the notion that patent litigation is excessive. It shows the trends over time in the number of patent grants and the number of patent infringement complaints filed in U.S. district courts. As seen in the graph, there is a sharp increase in the number of complaints filed after 2011 due to the anti-joinder provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA). As astute observers of the U.S. patent system understand, this increase in complaints does not represent new disputes but merely a separation of defendants into individual lawsuits thereby mechanically increasing the number of complaints. Therefore, the decline in complaints observed after 2013 is more impressive than it appears as the decline would have been even greater were it not for the anti-joinder provision. Even still, complaints are only about a third higher than they were in the period leading up to the AIA. Furthermore, patent infringement complaints as a share of granted patents is low and is also declining. Marcum reports this share averaged 1.7% from 2013 to 2017 and is less than 1% today.