ARTICLE: Are District Court Judges Equipped to Resolve Patent Cases?
Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
Author
Kimberly A. Moore*
Excerpt
I. INTRODUCTION
Can the patent system flourish if the scope of the patentee's property right is wrongly assessed one-third of the time? This Article presents the results of an empirical study that shows that district court judges improperly construe patent claim terms in 33% of the cases appealed to the Federal Circuit. 2 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. Since 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 81% of these cases. In the absence of a route for expedited appeal of claim construction, district courts are forced to proceed with lengthy 3 and expensive 4 patent litigation based on their frequently erroneous claim construction.
Second, the 33% 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, 5 little attention has been given to whether district court judges are the appropriate alternative. 6 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" 7 or "contact ...
