Are District Court Judges Equipped to Resolve Patent Cases?: 'The Question is Which is to Be Master--That's All'

Posted: 26 Apr 2001

Abstract

Can the patent system flourish if the scope of the patentee's property right is wrongly assessed almost forty percent of the time?

This Article presents the results of an empirical study which shows that district court judges improperly construe patent claim terms in 38% of the cases appealed to the Federal Circuit. This is problematic for two reasons. First, it raises concerns about the efficiency of an adjudication system where no appellate review of these decisions is permitted until all issues are resolved by the trial court applying its claim construction. Because claim construction is the touchstone for any infringement or validity analysis, an erroneous claim construction impacts most liability decisions. The data show that errors in district court claim constructions require reversing or vacating judgments in 82% of these cases. In the absence of a route for expedited appeal of claim construction, district courts are forced to proceed with lengthy and expensive patent litigation based on their frequently erroneous claim construction. Second, the 38% error rate for claim construction creates doubt about the abilities of district court judges to adjudicate complex technical patent cases. Although there has been considerable commentary criticizing the practical limitations of juries adjudicating patent cases, little attention has been given to whether district court judges are the appropriate alternative. Can district court judges determine the meaning of patent terms to one of skill in the art when the terms are "memory selection second switch means" or "contact arrays being adapted to interchangeably connect?" What about seemly simple patent claim terms such as "between," "a" or "when?" This Article questions the process of having district court judges decide complex issues of patent infringement and validity based on their claim constructions when these constructions prove incorrect in 38% of the cases. The Article concludes that the most efficient way to balance the need for certainty and accuracy in patent claim scope determinations is not with increased deference to inaccurate district court decisions or by waiting for improvement in the quality of the district court decisions, but rather by providing expedited appeal of these issues to the Federal Circuit in limited circumstances.

Suggested Citation

Moore, Kimberly A., Are District Court Judges Equipped to Resolve Patent Cases?: 'The Question is Which is to Be Master--That's All'. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=268073

Kimberly A. Moore (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN

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