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A cursory glance at the daily calendar in the Northern District of Illinois reveals a recurring theme: “Schedule A” cases. Such matters are prevalent in the district court judges’ court calls. In fact, the Northern District of Illinois is by far the most popular court for filing Schedule A patent infringement cases. These matters get their moniker from the Schedule A document attached to the complaint, which enumerates the typically hundreds of defendants being sued. These defendants are usually online retailers accused of selling infringing items on platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, to name a few. The Schedule A mechanism enables the owners of design patents to sue purported counterfeiters en masse.
And this burgeoning area shows no signs of slowing. In the past three years, the number of design patent infringement cases filed against Schedule A defendants in the Northern District of Illinois increased from 38 in 2020 to 54 in 2021 to 63 in 2022. Then, in the first nine months of 2023, 59 design patent infringement cases were filed against Schedule A defendants in the Northern District of Illinois.
While the Northern District of Illinois is an outlier, the number of Schedule A filings continues to climb in other courts. In second place is the Southern District of Florida, where Schedule A patent case filings went from 9 each in 2021 and 2022 to 24 in 2023, an increase of 167%. The number of Schedule A design patent cases filed in the Southern District of Florida increased from 7 in 2022 to 18 in 2023, an increase of 157%.
The Keleher Appellate Law Group has been and will continue to be heavily involved in Schedule A litigation in the Northern District of Illinois. If you are seeking representation in Schedule A litigation, we can assist.