Patentees don't do well in court

PatentlyO mentions work of Allison, Lemley & Schwartz on Patent Litigation noting



Overall, patent challengers tend to win: Overall, patent holders tended not to win in cases that went to a definite merits resolution. Overall, patentees won only about 26% of the time (164/636 definitive merits rulings). In addition to invalidity, patent holders lost on frequently-brought motions for summary judgment of noninfringement 54% of the time (257/473) and infrequently obtained summary judgment on more rarely-brought motions for summary judgment of infringement (41/128). Thus, although patentees had a fairly high success rate at trial (winning on 59% of patents when juries made the decision and 64% when the bench did), the 1-2 punch of summary judgment followed by trial meant that most patent cases that went to judicial resolution were resolved in favor of the patent challenger.




One recalls the earlier PriceWaterhouse study. From IPBiz on the study:


Chart 9a suggests that the overall success rate for patentees is only 33%, with only two judicial districts [ED TX and MD FL) giving patentee success rates above 50%.