The number of patent infringement filings shot up by 22 percent in 2011 compared to the year before, reaching the highest level ever recorded, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers released in September. Patent infringement actions totaled 4,015 last year, marking an overall annual growth rate of 6.4 percent since 1991.
The spike in filings was due in large part to the America Invents Act, which took effect in September 2011, according to Michael Rosen, a patent litigation partner at Fish & Richardson. The act changed the joinder rule for patent cases and now restricts plaintiffs from naming numerous defendants in a single lawsuit. Previously, defendants that weren’t factually connected could be named in a single suit. After the act was passed but before its enactment, plaintiffs rushed to the courthouse to file using a “scattershot approach,” Rosen says. Additionally, after the law was enacted, the number of cases increased because defendants that would have been named in one suit became defendants in separate suits, he notes.
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