Throughout U.S. patent law jurisprudence, a select number of cases have made significant changes to fundamental aspects of the process of patent litigation. Such milestone cases often eclipse the more specific details of the parties involved in the litigation, the technology and technical industries encompassed by the litigated patents, and even the era of the litigation. For example, a little less than 20 years after the publication of the opinion, there is simply no patent litigation in today’s era in which a Markman hearing does not play a significant role in the strategy and execution of patent litigation.

With the Ninth Circuit’s panel affirmance of the district court’s judgment on July 30, 2015, Judge James L. Robart’s opinion in Microsoft v. Motorola has the potential to make a similar effect on patent litigation for complex technology.

Originally published in Bloomberg BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, 90 PTCJ 3215, 09/18/2015.