Track patent litigation activity over time across U.S. district courts, the PTAB, and the ITC.
Court Activity Over Time shows how patent litigation activity has changed over time across U.S. district courts, the PTAB, and the ITC. Use it to compare filing and litigation trends across forums, courts, technologies, and selected case types.
What it tells you
Section titled “What it tells you”Court Activity Over Time brings together four year-by-year views of patent litigation activity:
- Cases by Year shows new patent cases
- Parties by Year shows the parties involved in those matters
- Docket Entries by Year shows the volume of docket activity
- Claims Construed shows claim construction activity over time
Each chart separates activity by forum so you can compare trends across U.S. district courts, the PTAB, and the ITC.
Questions it can answer
Section titled “Questions it can answer”- How has patent case filing activity changed over time?
- How does litigation activity compare across the USDC, PTAB, and ITC?
- Which years saw the most activity in a particular district court or patent technology?
- How has the volume of parties or docket entries changed over time?
- How has claim construction activity changed across forums?
How to interpret the analysis
Section titled “How to interpret the analysis”Court Activity Over Time shows annual activity within the patent cases and forums that match your selected criteria.
The charts measure different kinds of activity, so read each series according to its title. Case counts represent new cases, party counts represent parties appearing in the selected matters, docket-entry counts reflect filing activity, and claim-construction counts reflect recorded claim constructions.
The tool is designed for trend analysis. Use it to compare changes in volume and activity over time rather than to evaluate litigation success.
When Estimate Current Year is selected, Docket Navigator projects the year-to-date activity across the full year. Use the estimate as an indication of the current pace, not as a final annual count.
Filters and defaults
Section titled “Filters and defaults”Use the controls on the left to focus the analysis. You can refine the results by:
- litigation forum: USDC, PTAB, and ITC
- district court
- patent technology
- year range
- ANDA status
- HAE status
You can also choose between YTD and Estimate Current Year for the current-year view.
Changing these filters updates the charts to reflect the selected patent-litigation population.
Reading the results
Section titled “Reading the results”Each chart plots annual activity by forum, making it easy to see changes in volume, compare forums, and identify periods of unusually high or low activity.
Use Cases by Year for the clearest view of filing trends. The other charts add context by showing changes in participation, docket activity, and claim construction.
Because the charts measure different types of records, values should be compared within the same chart rather than treated as directly equivalent across charts.
Explore the underlying records
Section titled “Explore the underlying records”Where available, select a chart point to continue into related Docket Navigator records and investigate the activity behind the trend.
Important considerations
Section titled “Important considerations”Court Activity Over Time measures litigation activity, not outcomes or performance.
Current-year values may be incomplete or estimated depending on the selected setting. Estimates are most useful for understanding pace and should not be treated as final year-end totals.