Federal Circuit’s Chief Judge Rader’s Speech

On November 1, 2013, Chief Judge Rader of the Federal Circuit gave a speech in Plano, Texas (at the Eastern District of Texas’ Bench/Bar Conference), on Patent Law and Litigation Abuse (the speech is available here). Among the many notable aspects of the speech is that studies concerning patents demonstrate that patents spur innovation, the patent system does not inhibit invention, and that skeptics of the patent system use the “litigation abuse problem” as a “weapon to erode confidence in the patent system.” Chief Judge Rader noted that several options exist for the Courts to control any abuses in patent litigation, including (i) summary judgment, (ii) fee reversal, and (iii) litigation expense reforms (such as model orders designed to reduce discovery costs and to narrow litigable issues at an early stage of the proceedings).