President Obama was recently urged to sign a bill passed by the Senate on December 13, 2010, that seeks to educate US District Court judges on the intricacies of patent cases. The bill would send cases with one or more patent issues to judges who request to hear patent cases and would provide the judges with additional experience evaluating patent claims. The program would be instituted in the six U.S. District Courts that received the most patent and plant variety protection cases in the last year. Courts that adopt and implement local rules for patent cases also will be eligible for the program.
The bill is intended to provide judges an opportunity to develop their expertise and to better evaluate and understand patent cases. Patent law is a unique and complex area of the law unfamiliar to many experienced judges. President Obama has been urged to sign the bill into law to help thwart efforts of so-called “patent troll” plaintiffs, who typically file lawsuits against possible infringers of patents in which the plaintiffs have acquired ownership rights.
The law would remain effective for 10 years, and the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts is to prepare a report of the pilot program approximately five years after the program begins. Companies with significant investments or dependencies in technology should keep an eye on how the participating courts handle patent claims, if the bill is signed. Implementation of this sort of program may have a positive effect on those companies’ legal exposure arising from third-party, patent-infringement claims.
A copy of the bill is available on the govtrack.us website.