Delaware IP Law Blog

Our fellow associate, Sara Beth Reyburn attended the Delaware Bar Association Intellectual Property Section's annual meeting last night and has written the following guest post for the Delaware IP Law Blog:

The Honorable Leonard P. Stark shared some "General Thoughts from the Bench" at last night’s Delaware State Bar Association Intellectual Property Section’s annual meeting. Judge Stark shared tips on the practices and procedures he has developed since being appointed to fill the District of Delaware’s newly created second Magistrate position last August.

Judge Stark also cited statistics that show why he is honored to be a part of the district’s "tremendously experienced court". For example, according to Judge Stark’s research, the three District Judges and two Magistrate Judges have served on the federal bench for a collective 69 years and have written close to 3,000 opinions since 2001. The three District Judges have an average caseload of 500 cases each (approximately 90 pending patent cases each). From 1995 to 2007, the time from filing the complaint to trial has generally been less than 23 months. In 2007, 17 (nearly 20%) of the 94 patent cases tried nationwide were in the District of Delaware.

Judge Stark said he has received generous mentoring from his colleague Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge, who is highly respected for her mediation skills. Judge Stark’s research indicated that Judge Thynge has mediated more than 1,150 cases, with an 80% settlement-success rate (including 187 of 272 patent cases). Judge Stark said he has been involved in 33 mediations and estimates his settlement-success rate at around 60%.

Author: Sara Beth Reyburn (sreyburn@ycst.com)

Sara Beth is an associate in Young Conaway's intellectual property, corporate, and litigation and trial practice sections andhas worked on cases involving a variety of intellectual property, corporate, and commercial issues, including patent litigation, trademark and tradename matters, and internet domain name disputes under the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. Sara Beth originally joined the firm in 2001 and, after pursuing a writing career for a brief period, returned to the firm in 2006. Sara Beth has assisted on pro bono cases for the Federal Civil Panel of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. She also volunteers with her hometown's local historical commission.

With all the talk of the economy's woes and the renewed prospect of substantial patent reform, many commentators predict bleak times ahead for IP litigators. Amid this sea of gloom, it's good to know that Delaware, home to over half the country's Fortune 500 companies and an experienced judiciary accustomed to hearing those firm's disputes, remains one of the leading patent jurisdictions in the country.

In 2007, IP plaintiffs filed 181 cases, 30 more than in 2006. These 2007 IP cases (patent, trademark, and copyright) filled nearly 20 percent of the District of Delaware's entire civil docket. To put the number of IP cases our judges handled in perspective, consider that in all of last year, the Court received only 46 non-IP tort complaints. Of all civil categories, only prisoner petitions exceeded IP filings, and not by much: 202 to 181.

By comparison, the Eastern District of Texas's 338 IP cases filed in the twelve-month period ending March 2007 (the latest stats available) represented 11 percent of its civil docket. The 144 IP cases filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in the same period comprised only 4 percent of that Court's civil filings.

Coupled with a low reversal rate, Delaware is indeed a good place to be. While the "rocket dockets" shift in and out of favor (see IP Law 360's recent take on this development), Delaware will continue business as usual.