The Landscape of Modern Patent Appeals

60 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2018 Last revised: 9 Nov 2018

See all articles by Jason Rantanen

Jason Rantanen

University of Iowa - College of Law

Date Written: March 14, 2018

Abstract

Quantitative studies of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's patent law decisions are almost more numerous than the judicial decisions they examine. Each study painstakingly collects basic data about the decisions-case name, appeal number, judges, precedential status-before adding its own set of unique observations. This process is redundant, labor-intensive, and makes cross-study comparisons difficult, if not impossible. This Article and the accompanying database aim to eliminate these inefficiencies and provide a mechanism for meaningful cross-study comparisons.

This Article describes the Compendium of Federal Circuit Decisions ("Compendium"), a database created to both standardize and analyze decisions of the Federal Circuit. The Compendium contains an array of data on all documents released on the Federal Circuit's website relating to cases that originated in a federal district court or the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)-essentially all opinions since 2004 and all Rule 36 affirmances since 2007, along with numerous orders and other documents.

This Article draws upon the Compendium to examine key metrics of the Federal Circuit's decisions in appeals arising from the district courts and USPTO over the past decade, updating previous work that studied similar populations during earlier time periods and providing new insights into the Federal Circuit's performance. The data reveal, among other things, an increase in the number of precedential opinions in appeals arising from the USPTO, a general increase in the quantity-but not necessarily the frequency-with which the Federal Circuit invokes Rule 36, and a return to general agreement among the judges following a period of substantial disuniformity. These metrics point to, on the surface at least, a Federal Circuit that is functioning smoothly in the post-America Invents Act world, while also hinting at areas for further study.

Keywords: Patent, Federal Circuit, Empirical, Quantitative, Statistics

Suggested Citation

Rantanen, Jason, The Landscape of Modern Patent Appeals (March 14, 2018). 67 American University Law Review 985 (2018), U Iowa Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2018-22, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3140527

Jason Rantanen (Contact Author)

University of Iowa - College of Law ( email )

Melrose and Byington
Iowa City, IA 52242
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
445
Abstract Views
2,298
Rank
119,475
PlumX Metrics