<p>Chief Judge Randall Rader of the CAFCAs readers of IP Watchdog are aware, Federal Circuit Chief Judge Rader recently delivered an important and noteworthy defense of the U.S. patent system the recent annual meeting of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). I did not attend the event, but others have recounted that Chief Judge Rader's remarks reminded attendees that the patent system is intended to promote innovation and asserted that patent litigation abuse is the main problem of our patent system.</p><p>According to Chief Judge Rader, patent litigation abuse (which he referred to as "litigation blackmail") occurs when a plaintiff patent owner attributes a high value to an asserted patent with the intention of extracting a small settlement from an alleged infringer defendant. He went on to outline a four step approach to curb patent litigation abuse, summarized simply as:</p><p>Limits on e-discovery</p><p>Early particularization of issues</p><p><a href="http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2013/04/01/ibm-chief-patent-counsel-on-patent-litigation-reform/id=38375/">Keep reading...</a></p>