Patent Litigation Down for 2005, Win Rate Low

According to a January 5, 2006 press relase from LegalMetric litigation tools provider, the number of new patent infringement cases in the U.S. dropped 10 percent in 2005 for the first time in ten years. In contrast, the number of lawsuits per issued patent has been in decline since 1997. Still, the decline seems to be specific to patent cases. Legalmetric reports that the number of trademark cases continued to increase from 2004 to 2005.

Perhaps their free Outcome Calculator may give a clue as to why. The tool takes estimates of costs and recovery, calculates the present value of the projected gain or loss from the suit, and then discounts that gain or loss, based upon the following historical plaintiff win rates

• 59.3% for patent case
• 87.2% for trademark cases
• 85.5% for copyright cases