Just two years ago, the U.S. International Trade Commission was ground zero for high-stakes patent fights, a place where some of the world’s biggest smartphone and electronics companies met to duke it out.

But since fiscal year 2011, the agency’s intellectual property caseload has been on a downward spiral, with the number of cases filed to date during 2013 tracking at around half the level of two years ago, when a record 70 patent suits were filed.