Patent Dispute Resolution On-line Survey

This post caught my attention, written by Gene Quinn from the IP Watchdog. I visited the survey and it takes only 3 minutes to complete the multiple choice questionnaire. Needless to say, this study could be an excellent avenue to promote arbitration and mediation to aid the resolution of patent-related disputes.

The Alternative Patent Dispute Resolution Project (”APDRP”) at Thomas Jefferson School of Law (”TJSL”) in San Diego, California is conducting an on-line survey of lawyers, judges, clerks and scholars such as you to gauge the industry’s perception of some fairly recent proposals to improve the current Federal patent adjudicative process in the United States and to encourage the use of alternatives thereto such as mediation and arbitration. This survey seeks to provide an update to a previous survey I personally conducted while at Franklin Pierce Law Center and writing my thesis that was then a requirement for obtaining an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law. My original work entitled Using Alternative Dispute Resolution to Resolve Patent Litigation: A Survey of Patent Litigators, was published in the Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review in 1999.

The results of the survey will be made available to anyone who requests a copy, and the results will be analyzed, published by the APDRP in a law review article, and then discussed by the group at the Patent Dispute Resolution: Improving Patent Adjudication Through ADR and Court Reform symposium to be held on April 3, 2009 in San Diego, CA. The APDRP would also like to present the results of the survey to members of the U.S. Congress and the judiciary to assist them in their efforts to improve the Federal patent adjudication process.