President Barack Obama signed a significant patent reform bill into law on Sept. 16. But one of Texas’ busiest patent judges is ahead of the game in making sure defendants don’t get dragged into his federal courtroom unnecessarily.
This year, U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis of the Eastern District of Texas began setting early claims-construction hearings in some patent cases — a procedure some patent lawyers call “mini- Markman ” hearings. Markman hearings can be a crucial, complicated and time-consuming part of an infringement suit, when the judge, as a matter of law, interprets the patent claim — the portion of the patent document that defines the scope of a patentee’s rights.
