Stanford CIS

The Effect of Patent Reexaminations

By Stuart Soffer on

In the context of aspects S1145 for Patent Reform, attached is a chart that illustrates the effect of patent reexaminations and litigation on patents.  This compares 4522 instances of assertion of reexamined patents in both Federal Courts and the ITC.  It simply shows the number of litigations initiated before or after the filing of a reexamination.

As a reeexamined patent may be litigated multiple times, on different dates, and a patent may be reexamined multiple times, the values reflect those multiple instances.  Nonetheless the data may support arguments for post grant review, that a reexamined patent is less likely to be litigated afterwards.