Markman orders are here!

Q: Our new business client will be litigating a patent matter. Is there an easy way to find out whether a Markman order exists in which significant terms from the other patent are defined? And if such an order exists, how do I retrieve it?

A: Search the newly released Markman Orders database (MARKMAN-ORDERS), which contains Markman orders already in the U.S. District Courts Cases database (DCT), as well as orders that are available only in MARKMAN-ORDERS. Coverage in MARKMAN-ORDERS begins with 2000.

A Markman order is a pretrial order in which the federal district court construes the meaning of key words in patent claims. A Markman order might construe claims from multiple patents at once. A patent litigator would surely want to see any existing Markman order that construes the claims language for the patent allegedly infringed. In addition, the patent litigator can search MARKMAN-ORDERS for all Markman orders that construe language that is the same or similar to that of the litigated patent. (Even if a Markman order does not explicitly apply to the patent at issue, it can still be useful background for the litigator.) These orders are also useful for practitioners who draft patent applications.

When viewing a document retrieved from MARKMAN-ORDERS, you can retrieve documents and patent file history from the underlying patents by clicking the appropriate links on the Links tab. (Note: These links do not appear when you retrieve a Markman order from the DCT database.) If you are viewing a patent that had been the subject of a Markman order, you can retrieve the Markman order by clicking the appropriate link at the KeyCite® history or Graphical KeyCite display.

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