ABSTRACT
We study how often Supreme Court patent cases are cited in law review articles, and compare our findings to our prior work that discussed how often the same cases are cited in Federal Circuit opinions. We find quite a few similarities, but also some important differences. Scholars pay more attention to doctrines that apply beyond patent law and doctrines at the periphery of patent law; appellate courts pay more attention to bread-and-butter patent issues like claim construction. Scholars probably pay too much attention to patentable subject matter. And neither scholars nor appellate courts pay much attention to some issues, like venue, that draw a great deal of attention from district courts and patent litigators. Our results are interesting not just for patent law and policy, but for thinking about how and why legal scholarship diverges from the interests of courts.
Gugliuzza, Paul R and Lemley, Mark A, Which Patent Case Matters Most? (January 15, 2026).
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