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IP Alert: Northern District of Illinois Selected for Patent Pilot Project

June 13, 2011

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois is among 14 federal district courts selected to participate in a pilot project designed to enhance expertise in patent cases among U.S. district judges. This project is expected to increase the appeal of filing patent cases in this court.

Under the pilot project, those judges who request to hear patent cases and who are approved by the chief judge will be assigned to a pool of designated judges. Patent cases initially will be randomly assigned to all district judges, regardless of whether they have been designated to hear such cases. A judge who is randomly assigned a patent case but is not among the designated judges may decline to accept the case. That case then will be randomly assigned to one of the district judges who is designated to hear patent cases.

The Northern District of Illinois was selected for participation in the project because of the large number of patent cases filed in this court.

For more information on the pilot program, please contact Fitch Even partner Allen E. Hoover.

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