Copyright Lawsuits Up 93% in 2005

According to The Third Branch newsletter of the federal courts, a total of 12,184 copyright, patent and trademark cases, under the general category of protected property rights, were filed in federal district courts in Fiscal Year 2005, up 27 percent from FY 2004.

The greatest increase in filings was seen in copyright cases, which rose 92.8 percent from FY 2004 to FY 2005. The majority of these cases were filed by music industry companies against individual defendants.

Statistics on "protected" (intellectual) property rights and other civil filings in the federal courts are available on-line in the publication, Judicial Business of the United States Courts, in Table C-2A, www.uscourts.gov/judbus2005/appendices/c2a.pdf