US district court patent litigation by month
|
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| January | 486 | 330 | 446 | 276 |
| February | 547 | 447 | 492 | 300 |
| March | 403 | 499 | 510 | 392 |
| April | 604 | 681 | 391 | 458 |
| May | 502 | 387 | 608 | 385 |
| June | 484 | 415 | 654 | 459 |
| July | 476 | 421 | 478 | 419 |
| August | 521 | 397 | 309 | 403 |
| September | 552 | 320 | 327 | 317 |
| October | 515 | 340 | 439 | 395 |
| November | 578 | 334 | 840 | 354 |
| December | 422 | 439 | 279 | |
| Total for year | 6090 | 5010 | 5773 | 4158 |
| Average monthly cases filed | 507.5 | 417.5 | 481.1 | 378.0 |
| Source: Docket Navigator |
2016 US district court filing will finish down on recent years. According to figures taken from the Docket Navigator database, the 354 cases filed in November brought filing for the year to 4158 cases.
This means it would take a record month of filing in December for it to catch up to the full-year figures of 6090 cases in 2013, 5010 cases in 2014 and 5773 cases in 2015. For reference, the 840 cases filed last November was the busiest ever month. That was prompted by a change in filing rules (and may also have been responsible for 2016’s sluggish start, with filers bringing planned litigation forward).
As of the end of November, 2016 was averaging 378 cases a month – way down from 2013’s monthly average of 508 cases, 2014’s 418 cases and 2015’s 481 cases.
Managing IP will run a full analysis of 2016 filing – including revealing the top plaintiffs, defendants and law firms, as well as the trends influencing filing figures – early in January 2017.
