Farewell, Fed. R. Civ. P. Form 18

This is not the first, but we do hope it’s the last, time we’ll speak about Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. That is the ancient form complaint of patent infringement—it pre–dates WWII—that has allowed plaintiffs to file lawsuits against accused infringers without really having to say much of anything other than,...

Form Reform Moves Forward

Way back in 2012, we highlighted the problems caused by Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides a sample complaint for use in filing a patent infringement case. The main problem? The bare–bones form requires a patent–asserter to provide virtually no information about its claims to the defendant. And, under Federal...