On December 1, 2015, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), approved by the US Supreme Court in April 2015, took effect. The amendments touch several aspects of litigation in federal court but primarily focus on earlier stages, including pleading requirements, initial case management, and the scope of discovery. The changes appear to have motivated a significant number of filings in the weeks before the effective date of the changes, as over 580 patent infringement cases, including nearly 500 NPE cases, were filed in the last two weeks of November.
