The Role of Technical Experts in Patent Litigation

Patent litigation relies on technical experts to evaluate and communicate scientific and engineering concepts to attorneys, judges, and juries who often do not have a specialized technical background. Responsibilities of a technical expert include interpreting scientific findings, disclosed documents, patents and relevant academic and trade literature in reports, depositions, and at trial. The technical expert must think critically about what kinds of analysis to perform – testing of accused products, analysis of prior art, comparisons of disclosed methods, processes and procedures. Testing associated with IP matters often involves both a theoretical analysis of the invention and accused products in addition to testing of the accused products to evaluate the alleged infringement. Experimental testing can be used to directly assess the relevant characteristics of a product that is part of an intellectual property dispute. Translation of complex details, including test results, into simple, memorable sound bites and graphics is key to making scientific concepts accessible and understandable for a broad audience. In this talk, we will describe the role of technical experts in different stages of patent litigation and present case studies related to evaluation of patent validity and infringement.