Tuesday, August 04, 2015

U.S. Copyright Lawsuit Filings Increase By Over 10% In One Year, Double Since 2010


Source - U.S. Courts - Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics

According to the latest annual report on Judicial Business found at www.uscourts.gov, for the period 2013-2014, filing of copyright cases increase 10.2 percent for the year ending September 30, 2014.  In 2010, 2,013 copyright cases were filed.   In 2014 4,041 cases were filed.  This means that filings of copyright litigations have practically doubled in a four-year period.

Patent litigation filings saw an overall significant four-year increase ( 3,301 in 2010 versus 5,686 in 2014).  From 2013 to 2014 however, patent case filings dropped 12.5 percent.

Trademark litigation filings remained relatively constant over the four-year period (3,652 in 2010 versus 3,693 in 2014), but saw a 16.4 percent increase from 2013 to 2014.

From 2010 to 2014 overall intellectual property case filings (combined copyright, patent and trademark)  increased substantially (8,966 in 2010 versus 13,420 in 2014).

Here are the stats:

                            2010         2011         2012        2013          2014       %change 2013/14

IP Total               8,966       9,940          11,666     13,335      13,420               .6
Copyright            2,013       2,297            3,074       3,666        4,041           10.2
Patent                  3,301       4,015            5,189       6,497         5,686         -12.5
Trademark           3,652       3,628            3,403       3,172        3,693           16.4

Intellectual property cases pending for over three years in the U.S. district courts remained stable in the 2013-2014 period

                         2013      2014

IP Total             702         726
Copyright            82           80
Patent                455         482
Trademark         165         164

As the federal courts continue to tackle important and novel issues raised by new technology and its impact on social and legal relationships that previously had little to do with copyright law, it is likely that the trend of increased copyright claims will continue.   For the full 2014 report on federal judicial caseload statistics, go here.

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