Federal Circuit Appeals Tend to Settle Quickly
January 22, 2020
RPX data indicate that when Federal Circuit appeals of patent cases end in settlement, they do so relatively quickly. The median time to dismissal is just 138 days for district court infringement suits where the type of dismissal indicates a likely settlement—meaning, where a case ends with an unopposed, stipulated, voluntary, or otherwise uncontested dismissal, or when the parties consent to judgment. Additionally, the time to settlement at the 25th percentile is a mere 73 days, while cases at the 75th percentile settle in 285 days.
See RPX’s last Data Byte for an overview of the Federal Circuit affirmance rate for appeals of patent cases, and another for an overview of appeal outcomes by issue type, including infringement, claim construction, and invalidity.
