Reilly, Greg --- "Patent litigation reform in the United States" [2019] ELECD 394; in Takenaka, Toshiko (ed), "Research Handbook on Patent Law and Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 378

Book Title: Research Handbook on Patent Law and Theory

Editor(s): Takenaka, Toshiko

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785364112

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Patent litigation reform in the United States

Author(s): Reilly, Greg

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

The United States Congress is increasingly focused on reform to patent litigation to address the increased volume and high costs of patent cases, the supposedly bad actions of certain patentees (so-called ‘patent trolls’), and the perception that many patent cases are meritless and brought only to obtain cost-of-defense settlements. Some proposed reforms are properly tailored to address real problems in the patent system but many are unnecessary, unlikely to be effective because they fail to address underlying problems of substantive patent law, and/or likely to deter even meritorious assertions of patent rights. After providing an overview of proposed patent litigation reforms and their shortcomings, the chapter proposes a reform that is likely to be more effective and better tailored to addressing the problems motivating reform: staging litigation so that some patent issues are resolved in their entirety before there is any discovery or other litigation on other issues.