Leveled odds? Attorney capability, team litigation, and outcomes in administrative patent cases

Abstract

We examine the impact of legal representation in an administrative setting. Focusing on adversarial proceedings within the United States Patent and Trademark Office and employing new data on patent litigation, we investigate patent rights—a legal area dominated by specialized, upper-hemisphere litigation teams that generally represent parties with ample resources. Even in an environment with substantial parity in representational capability, we find that litigation team quality matters. Perceived firm quality and litigation team size both enhance the likelihood of victory; these findings are robust under a number of different approaches used to account for the ability of attorneys to select their clients.