Patent infringement defendants have been enjoying a good ride for some time now. The Supreme Court, with decisions like Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, have for the most part raised the barriers for patentees and trolls. As a consequence, newly-filed cases fell in 2017 to 4,057, the lowest total since enactment of the America Invents Act in 2011. The number of new cases in 2017 stands in contrast to 2013, when 6,129 new cases were filed. Software cases, in particular, are on the decline, as evidenced, in part, by the drop in the number of covered business method filings to 34 in 2017, by far the lowest number in the past five years.
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