Is a competitor copying your patented products or registered brands? Have you received a cease-and-desist letter accusing you of infringement? Companies with strong patent and trademark portfolios and those subject to infringement actions should note that patent litigation is on the rise. At the national level, patent filings were up approximately 16 percent year-over-year in 2020.1
With the cost of patent litigation at an all-time high, a reliable and predictable legal partner is essential for your protection and to make sure your business growth and financial planning stays on track.
In July 2020, the American Intellectual Property Lawyer’s Association (AIPLA) issued a survey of IP-related costs. The survey found that the claim construction portion of patent litigation ranges from $250,000 for less than $1M at risk to $2.375M for cases with $25M or more at risk. For the entire trial, the AIPLA says that for less than $1M at risk, the trial will cost $700,000, while the extremely high value cases will cost $4M or more.2 Even worse is the widely ranging monthly legal fees associated with patent litigation. One month the legal fees may be negligible and another month the legal fees can easily exceed $60,000.
So, for cases with even relatively low risk factors, parties will spend $700,000 – or a total of $1.4M to fight a patent lawsuit.2 Combining even these lower amounts with unpredictability can make navigating of essential litigation by a business problematic at best.
Costs aside, patent trials take an average of 2.4 years to settle.3 Exactly Living with unpredictable finances for this amount of time can be detrimental to a business and a distraction for management.
What you and your business need are high quality reasonable priced and predictable legal fee litigation. At Garcia-Zamor, we offer flat monthly legal fee litigation plans which eliminate the risk of wildly varying costs and allow for a predictable monthly budget, which is determined based on the patents at issue and the stage of litigation during which we are retained. If we are retained at the beginning of a patent litigation with one patent at issue, we may propose a monthly flat legal fee of $8,000 (this can vary depending on particular factors). When compared with a $4M lawyer bill for a 26-month trial, you are looking at a potential savings of $3.7M. Even for a more affordable patent trial the savings can be $400,000 – which can instead be used to grow your business.
With nearly 20% of top IP litigation decision-makers expecting bigger, more complex, and riskier IP
Litigation in 2021, it is crucial that companies make initial risk assessments to minimize unpredictable costs, to allow for reliable budgeting, and to mitigate financial risks resulting from legal fees.4
If you need to protect your intellectual property, products, or brands then Garcia-Zamor stands ready to offer you superb litigation services at a reasonable and predictable cost. Run, don’t walk to Garcia-Zamor! We’ll handle all of your patent and trademark litigation needs in a predictable manner which will reduce the worry and distraction of your litigation.
Contact us at 410-531-9853 or info@garcia-zamor.com to learn more.
1 Vakil, B. (2020, August 25). Recent uptick in patent litigation likely due to coronavirus and legal developments. Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://www.whitecase.com/publications/alert/recent-uptick-patent-litigation-likely-due-coronavirus-and-legal-developments
2 Krajec, R. (2020, July 10). Current patent litigation costs are between $2.3 to $4M. Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://apnews.com/press-release/news-direct-corporation/a5dd5a7d415e7bae6878c87656e90112
3 Yoon, J. C. (2016, August 4). IP Litigation in United States. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Revised-Stanford-August-4-2016-Class-Presentation.pdf
4 Morrison & Foerster. (2019, August 7). Benchmarking IP Litigation 2019. https://media2.mofo.com/documents/benchmarking-ip-litigation-2019.pdf
