Birth of a rocket-docket
01 November 2008
US Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker has recently taken on a bigger role at the nation's latest patent rocket-docket. Eileen McDermott spoke to him about how the Court will continue to handle the heavy patent caseload minus one judge, as well as what the future holds
"We didn't aim to become an IP court," says Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Crocker left his career as a federal prosecutor for the US Department of Justice and joined the Court as magistrate judge in 1992. During that time, the number of patent cases heard by the Court has grown exponentially. And yet, with a median time of 4.8 months from the date of filing a complaint to the disposition and no civil cases pending for more than three years as of 2007, the Western District of Wisconsin beats the speed of the nation's two best-known rocket dockets (the Eastern District of Texas and the Eastern District of Virginia) and is also said to have the lowest claim construction reversal rate in the country (see "Your guide to US patent venues", Managing IP, September 2008). But Crocker will...
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