Judge-by-Judge Statistics on Stays Pending Patent Reexamination

Success in Halting Infringement Case Varies Across Courts/Judges

Courts have the inherent power to manage their dockets, including the authority to stay patent infringement litigation pending the conclusion of a Patent Office reexamination. For this reason, patent reexamination parallel to a district court/ITC litigation is often initiated in an attempt to stay the more cost prohibitive court proceeding.

Perceptions as to whether or not a stay is warranted will vary significantly, even though the same analysis is performed by each court. (See factor based analysis here). Attitudes vary across courts (ITC v. EDTX, v NDCA), even amongst judges of the same court.

Thus, a threshold determination for any defendant becomes:

How does Court/Judge X view requests for patent reexamination?…and is there somewhere I can find this information?

Statistics for 2008-2011 are found below for many of the major district courts. (click to enlarge)

There are many database services that will provide such information, some at a significant cost. This report was easily generated using the Docket Navigator Database, I find this service more cost effective and user friendly than others.