1-10 Patent Cases

• Jurisdiction: United States

1-10 Patent Cases

In Gunn v. Minton,³⁴⁵ the U.S. Supreme Court held that state courts can hear legal malpractice cases arising from the alleged mishandling of patent lawsuits, even though patent claims are an exclusively federal subject:

As we recognized a century ago, "[t]he Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction of all cases arising under the patent laws, but not of all questions in which a patent may be the subject-matter of the controversy." New Marshall Engine Co. v. Marshall Engine Co., 223 U.S. 473, 478, 32 S.Ct. 238, 56 L.Ed. 513 (1912). In this case, although the state courts must answer a question of patent law to resolve Minton's legal malpractice claim, their answer will have no broader effects. It will not stand as binding precedent for any future patent claim; it will not even affect the

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