Patent Law

The following is excerpted from a September 17, 2008 editorial of The InterMountain:

Beginning next year, two judges in each of five very populous counties in Ohio will become specialists in business cases. Their courts will exist as business-only venues for four years, during a pilot program authorized by the General Assembly. After legislators have evaluated the trial run, they can decide whether to make the system permanent.

Business-only courts would deal solely with disputes among companies and involving commercial issues such as patent infringement, insurance disputes, etc. Such matters can be quite complex, and that is one reason why specialty courts have been suggested. Their judges could be educated more intensively in business law and, by handling it exclusively, would develop more expertise than is available from all-purpose courts. Another advantage of business-only courts is that they can speed up litigation and other resolution of disputes.

It will be interesting to see whether these courts also employ special masters.  Read the full editorial here.