The amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will take effect on December 1, 2015. Before implementation of these Rules, in its complaint, a plaintiff alleging patent infringement merely had to place the defendant on notice of its infringement. This has been referred to as “notice pleading.” Over the last 10 years, the Supreme Court has attempted to increase the level of factual detail needed to place a defendant on notice through Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009). However, the Federal Circuit in 2012 (In re Bill of Lading Transmission and Processing System Patent Litigation) found that if the Twombly/Iqbal standards conflict with Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure with respect to a direct infringement allegation, then Form 18 controls.

What is a 'plausible' claim of infringement? Read more about the new rules. 

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas.  He also co-founded Project K, a charity devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time.  Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer..