The Study of Classification on Patent Decisions: The Cases from U.S. CAFC

In the business environment of a knowledge-based economy, patents are a key factor that influences the competition and development of the high-tech industry. Taiwanese technology manufacturers, which are vital players in the global market, have been frequently accused by large foreign enterprises of patent infringement. Intellectual property lawsuits in the United States attract wide international attention because of the country's market size and the prestige of its court opinions regarding patent lawsuits. Therefore, this study examined the types of issues involved in various litigations among U.S. patent lawsuits, and expanded complete patent decision networks to investigate key cases and the issue development path. This facilitates the understanding of U.S. court opinions and the preparations for relevant management practices. In addition, the objective of this study was to develop an analysis method by using a law database to collect 1,313 patent decisions issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit between 1997 and 2007. The concept of co-citation in citation analysis was employed to interpret the foci of patent decision litigations in recent years. Following classification, the litigation issues were confirmed by U.S. patent attorneys to ensure that the classification method and logic used in this study possess practical validity. The purpose of this study is to provide future patent decision researchers with a systematic perspective and focused reading so that they can efficiently select the most appropriate patent decision classification method.