Its research found that 9,210 law suits last year involved
copyright, patents or trade marks, compared with 10,276 in 2007. It
said that the fall off was largely down to a drop in the number of
recording industry law suits being pursued.
"The trend reflects the success of the recording industry in
protecting its copyrights, leading the industry to bring fewer
lawsuits in the past few years," it reported.
IP is critical to most technology businesses, which trade on
their innovations, inventions or improvements to other
technologies.
Another area of law vital to technology companies is antitrust
law. Microsoft, in particular, has faced significant antitrust
litigation, while Intel is facing a probe by the European
Commission on antitrust grounds and another antitrust probe by the
state of New York.
Law360 found that the number of antitrust law suits in the US
rose by 27% in 2008. It said that this is the continuation of a
trend.
"[This extends] a multiyear trend of dramatic increases as
private plaintiffs firms closely track government investigations
and prosecutions," its research said.
The research found that employment law suits had increased in
number by 6%, and that the number of bankruptcy filings increased
dramatically.
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