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Patent Litigation Growth In 2020 Points to Sustained Activity In 2021

By Rob Maier
March 01, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 hammered the legal landscape and brought countless new challenges. The pandemic triggered devastation, both economic and otherwise, and disrupted operations in the courts and across the broader legal industry.

Despite the recession — or partly as a result of it — 2020 was also a year of growth for patent litigation in the United States. This article provides a look back at patent litigation filing statistics in recent years across district courts in the United States, with an eye toward current trends that in all likelihood will continue deep into 2021.

2020: A Surge In Patent Litigation

Beginning first with recent filing counts, Figure 1, below, provides annual counts for patent cases filed in U.S. district courts from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2020. After a decline in case filings to approximately 3,500 in 2018 and 2019, nearly 4,000 patent cases were filed in 2020, marking a return to 2017 levels.

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