Data do not support an explosive growth of patent litigation
Claims of a patent litigation "explosion" continue to be unsupported by the latest data. Going back to 2004, the number of patent cases filed per year break down this way:
2004 - 3,075 patent cases
2005 - 2,720 patent cases
2006 - 2,830 patent cases
2007 - 2,896 patent cases
2008 - 2,909 patent cases
Considering that 9,573 IP lawsuits were filed in 2008, patent litigation made up only 30% of all IP litigation. Further, as 223,093 civil cases were filed in 2008, patent litigation made up only 1.3% of all litigation in the U.S.
The "urban legend" about an explosive growth of patent litigation evokes the previous "urban legend" that the USPTO might be allowing 97% of all patent applications. That wasn't true either, but the "urban legend" made its way to the US Supreme Court within a brief.
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