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"A catalyst for leading all civil litigation in the United States." With these words Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Randall R. Rader described the Patent Pilot Program in his remarks to a packed gathering of the bench and bar of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last week. Rader was the keynote speaker at a program hosted at Stanford Law School on Jan. 18, 2012, addressing the Northern District's Patent Pilot Program. The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts designated California's Northern District as one of 14 districts chosen to participate in the pilot program.
The Pilot Program's statutory goal is to "encourage enhancement of expertise in patent cases among district judges." The Pilot Program has been one component of the patent reform debate since, at least, 2006. Speaking in 2009, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said that "it is widely recognized that patent litigation is too expensive, too time consuming, and too unpredictable. [This legislation] addresses these concerns by authorizing a pilot program in certain United States district courts to promote patent expertise among participating judges." 155 Cong. Rec. H3457 (March 17, 2009)
Rader enthusiastically embraces the opportunities he sees arising from the Pilot Program, particularly when it comes to reducing patent litigation expenses. He travels widely throughout the U.S. and internationally and is often asked whether "the benefit is worth the cost" when it comes to the "extensive and expensive discovery" in U.S. civil litigation. According to Rader, the Patent Pilot Program paves the way for the "patent system to lead to an economically defensible adjudication model" and he believes that the "first thing to address is more effective ways to reduce the cost of discovery." If patent litigants in the Pilot Program can manage discovery efficiently without vast expense, Rader believes that this will be "the tip of the spear" in improving all U.S. civil litigation.
Rader cites the Federal Circuit Advisory Committee's Model Ediscovery Order (reported in Law Technology News' article "The Elephant in the Patent Courtroom") as one component of the patent bar's leadership in reducing discovery costs. He expects that judges and practitioners can build on these efforts through the Pilot Program. Rader announced that he intends to invite all 79 judges and magistrates that are participating in the program to the Federal Circuit Judicial Conference in May to discuss patent litigation improvements. According to Rader, developing patent discovery best practices is "step one" in creating a more efficient and less costly dispute resolution model.
In his speech to the Northern District of California, Rader demonstrated once again that he is a relentless advocate for improving patent litigation and, in turn, civil litigation. He is passionate in his view that reducing litigation costs by limiting discovery burdens through the Patent Pilot Program is the most critical first step on the path to reforming patent litigation in the United States.
Mark Michels is the former litigation manager and discovery counsel at Cisco Systems. Email: mnpm2190@gmail.com.
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