The database has been updated through September 13, 2006. It now contains all 749 claim construction opinions of the Federal Circuit since Markman I (April 1995).

Access the database by clcking here.

The data associated with our recent paper, The Federal Circuit and Patentability: An Empirical Assessment of the Law of Obviousness, is available below (in Excel [.xls] and Comma-Separated-Value [.csv] formats).

// Summary of the Dataset //
- Start Date: March 8, 1990
- End Date: May 25, 2005
- Records: 480
- Inclusion criteria: An observable analysis of obviousness in a Federal Circuit opinion from 1/1/1990 to 5/25/2005. (Note that this means that there are more records than cases.)

// Data Files //
- Field Descriptions [ XLS File ] [ CSV File ]
- Data File [ XLS File ] [ CSV File ]

The presentation given at the 2006 Frontiers of IP Conference at the University of Texas on November 11, 2006 is now available. It's available in both PDF and (interactive) Quicktime formats.

Files: [ .pdf ] [ .mov ]

We've updated our paper, The Federal Circuit and Patentability: An Empirical Assessment of the Law of Obviousness, 85 Tex. L. Rev. __ (2007). The new version includes an Epilogue addressing the Supreme Court's KSR v. Teleflex opinion of earlier this month, as well as minor changes throughout. You can download the paper via SSRN, here.

In its recent decision in KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., the Supreme Court embraced a legal standard for obviousness that is in principle identical to the one the federal circuit currently uses. See The Supreme Court and the Modern Obviousness Standard. However, a little discussed aspect of the case may have significant repercussions for patent litigants. In particular, the decision may, for some period of time, have created a litigation topography more favorable to summary judgment.