District Courts Tackle Alice Factual Disputes More Frequently at Rule 12
December 29, 2021
The Supreme Court’s Alice decision once provided a key offramp for defendants hoping to avoid lengthy litigation, particularly trial, by challenging patent eligibility at the outset. However, the Federal Circuit’s 2018 Berkheimer and Aa...
Read full postE-Commerce and Software Litigation Saw the Most Alice Activity in Q3
December 22, 2021
A breakdown of district court Alice invalidation rates by market sector (specifically, by the RPX market sector assigned to the litigation in which the patents were asserted and then challenged under Alice) reveals the industries with the m...
Read full postJudge Albright Remained the Top Patent Judge in Q3 as Appellate Pushback on Transfers Continued
December 15, 2021
District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas was once again the nation’s top judge for patent litigation in the third quarter of 2021, with 18% of new patent litigation falling in his courtroom. Judge Albright was trai...
Read full postAlice Remains in Narrowed State Post-Berkheimer as Congress Revives Section 101 Reform Debate
December 8, 2021
Data on patent eligibility rulings reveal that Alice currently remains in a narrowed state as a result of the Federal Circuit’s 2018 Berkheimer and Aatrix decisions, which limited courts’ ability to grant early Section 101 challenges. T...
Read full postAmid a Steady Pace of Litigation and Continued Patent Pickups, IP Edge Tries a Case at the ITC
December 1, 2021
As detailed in RPX’s latest quarterly report, prolific patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC has been responsible for a significant portion of new NPE filings this year—accounting for nearly 26% of the defendants added to litigation thro...
Read full postNHK-Fintiv Rule Pushes Defendants Toward Reexams: More Already Requested This Year Than in All of 2020
November 17, 2021
RPX’s third-quarter review recently detailed how access to America Invents Act (AIA) reviews has been constrained by the NHK-Fintiv rule, which allows the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to discretionarily deny institution based on t...
Read full postVenue Update: West Texas Remains on Top for NPE Litigation, Due Largely to Judge Albright
November 10, 2021
The Western District of Texas and the District of Delaware were essentially tied for first place in Q3 2021 for overall patent litigation, each seeing just over 220 defendants added to litigation campaigns within that period. For NPE litiga...
Read full postOperating Company Filings Held Steady in Q3 as Anti-Counterfeit Litigation Saw Even More Activity
November 3, 2021
Operating companies added 287 defendants to patent litigation campaigns in Q3 2021, broadly in line (+1.5%) with the trailing Q3 average for the past three years. Third-quarter operating company filings also increased by 9.5% over the same ...
Read full postMarket Sector Update: More NPEs Swerve into Automotive Sector
October 27, 2021
A breakdown of NPE district court filing trends by market sector shows a marked increase in litigation hitting certain industries in Q3 2021 compared to that same quarter last year. In particular, NPE litigation targeting the Automotive sec...
Read full postInstitution Rates Continue Their Downward Slide as NHK-Fintiv Rule Limits IPR Access
October 20, 2021
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial in 52% of the America Invents Act (AIA) review petitions addressed during the third quarter of 2021, bringing the overall institution rate for the year thus far to 57.2%—down sligh...
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