Controlling Costs in Patent Litigation
January 2013
By: John L. DuPré
2013 IP Value (IAM Magazine)
The following is an excerpt from this article in IAM Magazine's 2013 IP Value - Building and enforcing intellectual property value.
Whether you are a patent owner who needs to stop an infringing competitor in order to protect your market position or a start-up company that is being threatened with a patent infringement lawsuit, the costs of patent litigation can escalate quickly and overwhelm the business reasons underlying the suit. In order to keep the business needs at the forefront when embarking on this course of action, you should retain and work with a law firm that understands what drives the cost of patent litigation and which has developed an approach to mitigate these costs. Key aspects in approaching a patent dispute to mitigate costs include:
- staffing the litigation properly;
- pursuing focused discovery;
- limiting discovery of electronically stored information and documents;
- eliminating unnecessary motion practice; and
- focusing trial preparation and strategy.
Litigation teams and staffing
Attorneys’ fees are the largest cost component of any patent litigation and the law firm’s approach to staffing the litigation is critical to the costs that you will face. A firm that can handle a matter with fewer attorneys and paralegals than others to achieve the same results will lower your costs. Be wary of firms that rely too heavily on expert witnesses to analyse facts and develop case strategies – work which should be done by attorneys. These experts will be less efficient and effective than an appropriate attorney.
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John L. DuPré
Senior Counsel
t. 978.202.3284
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