Stanford Creates Database Of Patent Litigation
from the looks-useful dept
Over at Stanford, some law professors have been putting together a database of IP litigation from the past few years, called the Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse. The Law.com article claims that there are "surprising" facts already coming out of the database, but they don't seem to be any different than what's been known for a while (specifically, that the number of patent lawsuits has been relatively constant over the past few years). Of course, part of the reason is that more infringement lawsuits have been filed against many defendants at once, rather than against just one or two. In fact, the database does show a big jump in the number of defendants.
Also, it's worth noting that the database leaves out all of the folks who paid up a settlement because it's simply not worth going to court or (even worse) those who never even bothered to create a product due to chilling effects from those claiming IP ownership. Still, it's good to have more data and to have that data more widely available for analysis.







