From a defendant’s perspective, participating in a lawsuit involving multiple defendants makes the case more complex for a variety of reasons. This is particularly true where the defendants are competitors of one another. In addition, because of the number of parties involved, sheer logistics for any court activity are seemingly exponentially increased. Simple things like finding a time for a status conference with the court or scheduling of a deposition or a meeting to discuss how to handle a particular witness can take numerous emails and phone calls to set up.

In addition, because various tasks in a litigation are often divided and/or shared amongst the defendants, the oversight needed to ensure quality consistent with a lawyer’s and client’s needs requires constant attention to every aspect of the case — even those assigned to other defendants. The complexities associated with being a defendant in a multiple defendant patent infringement lawsuit start from the very beginning of the case (even earlier if notice is provided before a suit is filed.)