Markman Hearings and Claim Construction in Patent Litigation 2009 July 8, 2009 - July 8, 2009 Location PLI New York Center New York, New York USA Description Companies and their patent lawyers anxious to resolve the ever-increasing number of costly patent disputes must deal with the 1994 Supreme Court case Markman v. Westview Instruments, which was supposed to add speed and predictability to patent cases. In Markman, the high court held that “judges, not jurors, are better suited to find the acquired meaning of patent terms.” After Markman, trial court judges started holding separate proceedings away from the jury - so called Markman hearings - to determine the scope of a patent’s claims. Thus, Markman hearings play a key and crucial role in the outcome of patent litigation and also in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications. Because there is no intermediate appeal, Markman has added a whole new level of lawyering, cost, delay, and some say, uncertainty to patent litigation.