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Is There a Better Way to Resolve Patent Disputes?

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Last week, a report analyzing the median damage awards in 36,629 patent cases from 2000-2013 concluded:
 
"[T]he median compensatory award of around $400,000 is far less than the typical cost of litigating a patent case to verdict. It highlights a disconnect between the $3-5M required to take a patent case through trial and the remote chances of recovering that amount as damages." 

Maybe a better system of (alternate) patent dispute resolution is needed!? (Reminds me of this forgotten provision of U.S. Patent Law: 35 U.S.C. § 294(a)).






These are my current personal views and should not be necessarily attributed to my current or former employers, or their respective clients or customers. Photograph by Tim Evanson on Flickr.

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