Burford Insights: What does the recent spate of mega-verdicts mean for patent holder litigation?

Burford Insights: What does the recent spate of mega-verdicts mean for patent holder litigation?

We are in the midst of an unprecedented run of mega-verdicts—that is, large damage awards of over $50 million—in patent cases. Lex Machina reports 17 damage awards totaling over $6.75 billion since the beginning of 2020—an average of nearly $400 million per award—in cases that went to trial in 2020 or 2021. Of those, an astonishing 11 were awards in excess of $50 million. 

Burford's Christopher Freeman is a Vice President at Burford with responsibility for assessing and underwriting legal risk in patent matters. As part of Burford’s investment team, he evaluates intellectual property cases and patent monetization campaigns and crafts investment structures that align incentives between funder, law firm and claimant. In this video, he explains what the recent spate of mega-verdicts means for patent holder litigation: 

• Trends in recent patent mega-verdicts
  
  
• What this means for patent holders and investors
  
  
• The dynamics that past cycles of mega-verdicts create and what patent holders need to be cautious of

This video was recorded on 22 April 2021. 

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