Filing and Settlement of Patent Disputes in the Australian Federal Court, 1995-2005

Kimberlee G. Weatherall, University of Queensland, Australia
Fiona Rotstein, University of Melbourne

Abstract

This article explores the filing and settlement of patent cases in Australia. Patent litigation is a subject which attracts constant discussion and debate. Until recently, Australian courts were perceived as 'anti patent'. Now there seems to be some concern that Australian patent litigation is slower, and more expensive, than other analogous jurisdictions. However, in general, few statistics on patent litigation have been available and most previous work on the topic has focused on the small proportion of cases which proceed to trial. Using data obtained from Federal Court records, this article presents a set of descriptive statistics relating to the filing and settlement of patent disputes in the Federal Court from 1995 to 2005. Our analysis indicates that, as in other countries, settlement rates in Australia are high, yet the average time to settlement, and judgment, is longer in Australia. However, there is some evidence that parties are in part responsible for the length of patent proceedings by requesting long delays between court events.