The Software IP Report
Goodbye to Form 18?
By Charles Bieneman
Categories: Patent Civil Procedure, The Software IP Report
Form 18 appended to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides a form complaint for pleading patent infringement. To the chagrin of many defendants, Form 18 has been used to justify very bare-bones complaints of patent infringement even after the Supreme Court’s Iqbal and Twombley decisions requiring more detailed pleading. Now Form 18 may be on the way out.
The US Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure has provided a recommendation to the Supreme Court in its September 2014 report that Rule 84, and the Appendix of Forms, including Form 18, be abrogated. Stay tuned — defendants could soon have another set of potent arguments to justify motions to dismiss complaints of patent infringement.