The trend of resolving patent disputes in the government's patent office, which costs a fraction of the price of litigation, has had an uneven effect on intellectual property practices across the country.

Attorney fees for resolving a patent validity dispute in the patent office range from $200,000 to $500,000, while full-blown federal litigation can lead to $3 million to $5 million in fees.

“Across the industry, there are fewer hours being spent on patent litigation because of the availability of these new patent office procedures,” said Mark Hannemann, a partner at Kenyon & Kenyon. “We don't know what the long term is going to look like and how often people are going to be using these procedures.”